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.THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "DEVELOPMENTS IN COMMERCE IN RUSSIA AND ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS"
WAS HELD IN MOSCOW.

Translation of an article
from the Russian trade union newspaper Solidarity

The Conference on the «Developments in commerce in Russia and role trade unions" was held in Moscow, Russia, on June 8-9. The Conference was organized jointly by the Union Network International - UNI and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung - FES.

The Conference was opened with welcoming introductions of Yury V. Bobkov, Chairman of the «Torgovoje Edinstvo» Central Committee; Viacheslav S. Goncharov, Deputy Chairman of the FNPR; Jan Furstenborg, Head of the UNI Commerce Sector; Holger Grape, Representative of the German Trade Union of Office Employees (DAG), Werner Benz, Attache on Social Issues of the German Embassy in Moscow; Oksana Grishko, Coordinator of trade union projects of the Friedrich Eberts Foundation. In their presentations the speakers wished every success to the Conference participants.

The date of the Conference were not chosen by chance, although the transformations caused by the development of market relations and the appearance of new property forms have been evident in the Sector for the last ten years. Nowadays, due to coming of major multinational corporations into the Russian market, changes of the commerce personnel employment and working conditions are speeding up with every coming day. The majority of the Sectoral formerly state-owned enterprises found themselves in a difficult situation characterized not only by tough competition, but also by impacts of the Governmental policy. In his opening address, Yuri Bobkov gave a brief outline of the complicated situation for the present-day Russian commerce enterprises and trade unions: «Teams of owners failed to adapt themselves to the market conditions which caused bankruptcies of many enterprises. Every year about 200 shops are closing down in Moscow».

New forms of property and ever aggressive  appearance of foreign capital lead to serious conflicts and problems. Trade unions have to operate in such a complicated situation. They not only have to survive in a new context, but to learn how to work effectively on a principally new basis. «With opening new shops and interference of multinationals, the level of social guarantees for the employees dramatically drops down. Besides, enterprise management often occupies anti-union standpoints. That is why the unions have to fundamentally reform their activity», - said Jan Furstenborg (UNI) in his address to the Conference.

In spite of the fact that multinationals have not yet made massive investments into the Russian market, the process of their coming in seems to start gaining momentum. Such companies as Stockman, IKEA, and the like, have already opened their outlets in Moscow.  In his presentation, Jan Furstenborg focused on numerous problems caused by the multinational coming in Russia and their further progressive expansion. He shared with his Russian colleagues from the «Torgovoje Edinstvo» his experience accumulated in the course of several years of the UNI (formerly FIET) hard work in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and identified basic development trends in the commercial Sector.

Rapid development of e-commerce, its influence upon wholesale trade, changes in the labor structure (shrinking of the share of manual labor and its replacement by up-to-date computerized systems), lead to inevitable losses of jobs at commercial enterprises. In this respect, trade unions must pay attention to the necessity of highly qualified training and re-training of their members in accordance with the requirements of time.

Trade union organizations must improve their structure at different levels and, first and foremost, at the enterprise level. How to organize trade union work with the people? Will they have confidence in trade unions? What is to be done in order to win back and hold their trust? How to attract to the union an employee of a multinational company having stable and relatively high wages and decent working conditions? The Conference participants were encouraged to address all these questions and to offer solutions in the course of the practical session - group activities.

Holger Grape, Head of the Commerce sector in the German Trade Union of State Employees - DAG, a UNI affiliate, presented his own view upon the problem, speaking on behalf of German colleagues.  Taking into account that the multinational Germany-based company METRO, reportedly, is planning to open its shops in Moscow in 2001, H. Grape focused on some aspects of his union’s and, in general, UNI’s working with this corporation. H.Grape, using the example of this major company, presented the strategies applied by many multinationals when coming to the markets of Central and Eastern Europe.

An important practical output of the Conference was reached in the process of discussion between the «Torgovoje Edinstvo» Moscow city committee representatives and their colleagues from the Union Network International. In particular, they discussed a joint project of their future trade union work with Metro. The UNI and German unions experience related to this multinational company will provide practical assistance to the Russian union in recruiting Metro employees and will make it possible to undertake a joint program on training trade union activists. The first meeting, in the framework of the project, for identifying first steps and responsibilities is to be held in autumn, 2000. The project may serve as a launching pad for an experiment. Later, after the union successfully organizes employees of one multinational company, the project can be adjusted and adapted for the enterprises  belonging to other companies.

In the course of preparing group reports, the participants identified specific trade union actions directed to attracting new membership, reforming financial policy of the trade union, and training personnel. The outcomes formed the basis of the Final Document.

Summing up the Conference results, Olga Vinogradova, UNI representative in Russia and the CIS, stressed that «working out of the specific action plan added important practical meaning to the Conference. Implementation of the disputed ideas will depend on the active attitude not only of the «Torgovoje Edinstvo» leadership, but also of the rank-and-file union members.»

The Conference participants had a chance not only to get new information about the multinationals coming into the Russian market, and to learn from the international organizations’ experience of working in the context of globalization; they also discussed their concerns and considered specific trade union actions in view of a changing economic situation.