Russian Trade Unions Rally Around New Labor Bill Introduced By Deputy Oleg Shein

By Vladimir Bilenkin, 22 March 2001

“The conception of the labor code bill that I am introducing comes from the fact that the regulation of labor relations must be based on developing and improving these relations as they have been historically formed, the legal expression of which is the existing Labor Codex of the Russian Federation. The bill reflects the gains of the workers in the more developed countries; it is full of regulations, which reinforce the role of the Trade Union organizations and labor collectives in the management of production and in the determination of the conditions of labor by means of the negotiation of collective contracts and agreements. It is expected that under present social economic and legal conditions the workers will protect their rights and interests, principally by themselves, with the help of Unions and other representative organizations of the workers.” <snip>

http://www.left.ru/inter/march/shein_bill.html

Shein's new bill has now received the support of not only some key trade unions but also of the recent congress of Russian Council of Workers. It would be interesting to hear what labor activists on this list think about this bill—its outline has been translated (see above). Personally, I think it goes far beyond the social imagination of labor bureaucracy in the US. And this is yet another reason to let the ideas of this bill be known to as many American workers as possible.