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STRIKES AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS IN RUSSIA (2)


CONTENTS
Introduction
The forms of recent strikes in Russia
The main causes of recent strikes in Russia
The main tendencies of strikes in Russia
Conclusion

Endnotes
Bibliography

Introduction
For the first time since the ‘Rail Wars’ of the late 1990s, Russian workers are again making news. While the media have focused on strikes at Ford and on the Moscow rail system, a broader wave of strikes has been gaining momentum in a range of industries across Russia. This new wave of strikes provides evidence that labor relations in Russia might be starting to look more like those in other countries. The highly politicized strikes of the 1980s and 1990s have given way to strikes that are largely about economics and about relations between employees and employers and that appear to reflect workers’ changing perceptions of entitlement. The state is still, of course, an important player in strikes, but in most cases it is no longer the primary or even a key player in the individual disputes.
It is hard to get reliable information on this subject, but it appears obvious that the level of striking activity is actually much higher than the authorities wish to acknowledge. Official information takes into account only «legal» strikes, and most strikes appear «illegal» the court definition, only a small amount of strikes is registered annually. For example, in year 2007 only 8 strikes were registered. It can be compared with the data from the Institute «Collective action», which states that in 2007 at least 35 strikes took place and the longest of them proceeded three weeks . Moreover, frequency and intensity of strikes, presumably, has also increased. In a review, presented on the international site of trade union news LABOURSTART in April 2008, it was stated that only in that month more than 25 different strikes and starvations were registered in Russia .

The forms of recent strikes in Russia
The greatest variety shows up in the chosen forms of protest. Greater part of strikes was not legal because they passed as elemental actions, as eventual phase of the process of defending the requirements. In the most cases the flow of these conflicts has predetermined the choice of the form of protest. There are different forms from the stop of work (complete stop, stop with the implementation of minimum of the work, waiver of service etc.) to the mass meetings and starvations.
From point of radicalism of actions there is also a large variety. Minimum radicalism is implemented in actions, related only to the fulfillment of work, necessary for the maintenance of the object on-condition. Maximal radicalism is starvations and scale mass meetings with ceiling of highways and other by the forms of civil disobey. Workers often take the conflict outside of an enterprise. Firstly, it is related to the fact that activists simply are not allowed to enter enterprises, but secondly, public actions and mass meetings are the means of publicity, which can also, in a certain degree, be a defense.

The main causes of recent strikes in Russia
The growth of the crisis phenomena in the year 2008 has affected negatively labour relations, which as early as in pre-crisis 2007 were very tense. In particular, the principal reason for those pre-crisis labour disputes in different regions and industries were delays of payments. Wide-spread violation of labour legislation was the reason of conflicts as well. It signifies the presence of substantial problems, which result in the appearance of such violations. As long as no substantial measures were taken for a change in the situation of non-payments and adjustments of labour relations on the whole, it gives the basis to suppose that such reasons remained and they generate new conflicts. The process of growth of the crisis could result in growth of the number of labour disputes.

The main tendencies of strikes in Russia
Although the recent wave of strikes is not that large, it can be said that strikes demonstrate two important tendencies of years 2007 and 2008. Firstly, it can indicate that the relations between labour and capital in Russia begin to develop on a model, which prevails in other countries of the world. During seven decades of the communist government and then two decades of post-communist development either a market economy or effectively functioning state was absent in Russia. Exactly those two factors formed relations between businessmen and workers in Western Europe and other countries-members of OESR. Therefore, the forms of workers’ protest in Russia differed sharply from those, which were implemented in other places. However, the new wave of strikes shows that labour relations in Russia gradually approach the model, which exists in other countries.
Secondly, and, maybe, most importantly, in today's Russia strikes are arranged already not so much from despair, but as a result of the growth of expectations, which evolves from the development of the economy. Certainly, strikes related to the postponed payment of salary still take place, but during the most of new protest actions the requirements about the increase of payment and the improvement of labour conditions are pulled out.
Workers more and more feel the increase of incomes and the consequences of inflation, which reduces the real standard of living even on the background of the general improvement of the economy. Price growth is the one of basic claims of strikers in Russia today. It can be said that many strikes in modern Russia are typical strikes of «business cycle»: workers strike when an economy grows and they have more market power over employers, who receives good incomes and are aspired to continue the production process.

Conclusion
However, Russia is to walk a long way before labour relations will become similar to those in Europe. Rights for the free conduct of collective negotiations and independent organizational activity are strongly restricted by law, and yet more in practice. Labour relations in Russia still carry the seal of authoritarianism. In spite of appearance of the new alternative trade unions, trade-union activity both at the level of workplaces and at the regional and national level still is dependant upon unions, migrating to Russia from communist times.

Endnotes




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