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On May 26 the Krasnopresnenskii department store was closed. It was closed "for rebuilding" - quite unexpectedly, not only for the customers, but also for staff. Three hundred people lost their jobs at once. They had not received the two months' advance notice about the dismissal and its reasons, they had not been offered a new job, they had not been registered the employment service. 

The trade union committee's approval of dismissals because of redundancy (if it was redundancy at all) had not been sought. Actually, nothing that the law provides for had been done. A huge lock was hung on the door - now here's a nice Labour Code procedure.

There has indeed been a recent increase in the number of phone calls to the offices of the Commercial, Catering and Consumers Co-operation Workers Trade Union. Not just individual workers have called. Also whole work collectives apply increasingly often  to the trade union for help. 

So what is going on in the sector? We asked Ms Tatiana Krylova, the chairperson of the Moscow Sectoral City Committee of the commerce trade union.

In our sector, as well in others, a new wave of redistribution of property has started. Every redistribution is accompanied by mass violations of the labour rights of the workers. The story of the Krasnopresnenskii Department Store joint-stock company is a good example of this.

Real estate company "privatised" the department store

The Rosbuilding company got interested in the department store. This company has nothing to do with retailing - they trade in real estate. 

As a first step Rosbuilding started to buy up shares from pensioners. But of course, this is not the way to collect a controlling block. Therefore the company acted in an old and familiar manner: They initiated a bankruptcy.

How can one make bankrupt a well-known department store in the centre of Moscow? Well - in exactly the same way as any other company, even the most prosperous Russian enterprise. 

One should buy up all the debentures from the suppliers. If you buy them for the sum of at least 42,000 roubles (less than $1,400) you can, according to our legislation, start the bankruptcy procedure. 

Last year the central committee of the commerce trade union together with our city committee addressed the State Duma and the Government, with a request to revise the law on bankruptcy. We received a reply - if this can be considered a reply: Your request will be processed. 

Influential groups want to benefit from a lack of legislation - workers are shown the door

It is obvious that some influential groups and clans are intentionally dragging the decision out to be able to finish the redistribution process. The State Duma adopted the changes in the law on bankruptcy in three readings, but the President vetoed them…

Yet we did not allow introducing any external administration to be established in the Krasnopresnenskii department store. The collectives of all large department stores supported the position of the trade union, since they understood they can come to face a situation like this themselves. 

But the "real-estate guys" got what they wanted. They managed to convince or intimidate the director so that she gave up her 38% of the stock. Together with the shares bought by Rosbuilding earlier, they got a controlling block and became the owners. And they did what they wanted from the very start: they sold the department store. Its workers do not still know to whom. And the people were turned out of doors.

Our city committee immediately sent telegrams to Mr Luzhkov (Moscow Mayor) and the deputies of the Moscow City Duma. We also brought in the representatives of the National Labour Inspectorate. Only after that the workers received what they had the right to, in conformity with legislation. 

The workers were paid two thirds of their basic salaries for the idle time, which was not their fault. They were offered jobs at another commerce enterprise belonging to Rosbuilding. They were warned that the beginning of September would mark mass dismissals. Those who would have already voluntarily left the company before that would be paid a benefit corresponding to their average three months' salary.

In most cases property redistribution does not lead to anything good - neither for the workers, nor for their trade unions. According to the labour code, the benefits of all the workers shall remain unchanged in case of a transfer of an undertaking. In reality, however, the new owner is generally starting with mass dismissals and a complete replacement of the work collective. People lose their jobs, and trade unions lose their members.

One can object and say that commerce enterprises are not only being liquidated, but also new ones are being launched in ever larger quantities. This is true - but it is difficult to create a trade union in a new place of work. The director is in many cases just a manager, following the will of the owner. The plenipotentiaries of the city committee often have to talk to people who are just figureheads. And it is impossible to find the real owner. So whom shall we negotiate with?

New employers say one thing and do another

Nobody wants to say that they refuse to co-operate with the trade union - a law on social partnership has been adopted in Moscow and the Law on trade unions has not been abolished yet. 

Nevertheless the usual tactics run as follows: They say "yes" in your face and reverse it behind your back. Or they send you to the personnel department, saying that you should solve all your problems there. But the personnel manager is given strict instructions beforehand: Use whatever pretext, but never let a trade union representative get access to the work collective.

In serious well-known commerce companies with rich traditions, like GUM (Moscow Main Department Store), TsUM (Moscow Central Department Store), and, among those that are relatively young, in the Seventh Continent chain of department stores, primary trade union organisations function openly. Those enterprises which come to the sector seriously and intend to stay there for a long time are interested in social peace within their enterprises. In this respect, their interests coincide with these of the trade unions.

Regrettably, management is more often hostile towards the trade union. That means only one thing - violations of law have become a normal thing in their companies.

For instance, the director of the Phoenix shop defined a salary of 300 roubles for his employees, and this salary was suggested to be paid in food products. The owners of the Alyonushka bakery decided to rent out a huge part of its premises. Thus a group of "not needed people" was created. Without further ado, five workers were fired for alleged deficiencies. With the help from the trade union's legal inspectorate they were reinstated and received their salaries for the forced absence from work.

Workers do not dare to organise

Unfortunately, most of the workers of commerce enterprises - and especially of catering companies, where it is easy to find faults in the workers - have to act in a particularly polite way towards the employer. If they find the courage to go to a trade union organisation to apply for help, they ask the union not to mention their names.

The most important reason for this is the "black cash". These workers get deplorable salaries (some 700 - 800 roubles) according to the pay-sheet, but in reality they receive several times that amount in envelopes, or with special pay-sheet, or as an insurance. Thus, they totally depend on the employer. 

The unified income tax of 13%, aimed at taking the salaries out of the shadow, did not influence the situation in the trade sector very much. So the position of commercial workers is still quite difficult: There is no unemployment in the sector, but at the same time there is not a confidence in the future and no stability in the work collectives.

Also multinationals break the laws

It is not only tiny retail outlets with a small number of employees and a fluctuation of the personnel, but also multinational companies that would not like to comply with Russian laws.

Some time ago we had a phone call from the mother of a young man working at a Global USA shop. His sick leave was not paid. When the National Labour Inspectorate reacted to our signal and organised an inspection, the accounts department said that they did not have anything to pay since none of the workers had brought any sick leave documentation. 

Later on when the city committee drew the attention of the Moscow government to this situation, the owner admitted that they had two weeks as an annual holiday instead of twenty-four working days. The paid absence from work due to illness should not exceed three days during a year. 

Is it surprising that, in such companies, workers run away from a trade union like the devil runs away from holy water?

When the owner or management is strongly against any dialogue, the trade union has nothing else left than to act in kind of a "guerrilla" way, in a secret mode. Something like this happened in McDonald's. 

Finally, we had managed to win our recognition struggle and forced the company into negotiations on a collective agreement (by the way, it has not been signed yet). The management representatives then said: Since we are at the negotiating table, we have to know our social partner - so to say - face to face. So give us the list of all McDonald's trade union members. 

As the reasons seemed to be good, they were given the list. As a result, about 50 of the trade union members cancelled their membership in just one year. It is rumoured that the administration offered $1,000 to everyone who would quit the organisation. Since then new people became trade union members, but the primary organisation does not give their lists to the administration any more. 

More and more primary organisations have been created "from the bottom", at the initiative of cafe, shop and other workers themselves. Trade union locals appeared in the Russian Pancakes chain of cafes and in Metroexpress, which is a company with participation of American capital. We always tell the trade union activists: Do not tell about your existence until it is advantageous for you.

By the way, in most countries the trade unions are not absolutely open organisations. A German trade union leader once said, partly in earnest and partly a s a joke: " You will stay a person of good morals even if you tell a lie when answering the following two questions: Are you pregnant? and Are you a trade union member?"

Individual workers can now join the union directly

In principle, workers of enterprises where there is an unwritten prohibition to join a union and where it is therefore difficult to create a union local, can join our ranks through registering in a higher level organisation structure. 

We have indeed seen more and more "individuals" recently. In year 2000, our trade union amended its Charter, introducing individual membership. Usually, we still recommend workers that they should try to create a small primary organisation, even with only three or four members. We also recommend that the employees of small enterprises should apply to the territorial committees of our trade union, created by the city committee for all territories of Moscow. 

Individual membership is not very convenient for us since it is difficult to collect dues. It is easier in the West - trade union fees are usually transferred with the help of a credit card.

Generally speaking, individual membership is our future perspective. This is the way of development, particularly in our union where there is a lot of small work collectives. Individual membership is the backbone of some sectoral trade unions in the West, that are similar to ours.

However, it is quite difficult to compare Russian trade unions to western ones… I am not sure if the trade unions of civilized countries could work under conditions where laws are not abided by and where people do not protest. Our trade unions can.

This is a translation of an article, which was recently published in the Russian "Solidarity" newspaper.