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3 September, 2007In the spring of 2005, Alexei Etmanov went to Brazil as a member of a trade union delegation and returned to his job at a Ford plant in Russia with a totally new concept of unionism.
Text / Masha Kurzina
ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA. Workers in Russia's auto industry, which is rapidly expanding and advancing, are now at the forefront of the country's trade union movement. One such worker is Alexei Etmanov, the president of the trade union committee at a Ford Motor Company plant in Vsevolozhsk, a small town near St Petersburg.
"Russia today is one country where cars can be built cheaply and sold with a good profit. All the world's largest automakers are now looking at Russia. In St Petersburg alone three assembly plants are being built, as well as a couple of spare parts plants. Who knows how many plants it would be across Russia? This demands that we raise the benchmark of pay and take advantage of the shortage of qualified labour, so that the high degree of exploitation will at least be offset by high wages. Although -- we are certainly against exploitation," says Alexei.
Alexei, a welder, came to the Ford plant and joined the union in 2003. In the spring of 2005 he went to Brazil as a member of a trade union delegation supported by the Transnational Information Exchange (TIE). This trip changed his concept of the union -- and his life.
Alexei found the contrast between Brazilian and Russian trade unionism startling. He compared the working conditions in the two countries, taking into account the difference in living standards, and felt that the wages at the Ford plant in Vsevolozhsk were too low. Unlike Brazilians, Russian workers were not paid bonuses at the end of year and had no share in the company's profits. And the union's activists were still "taking care of problems" and "stepping into the administration's shoes".
It took Alexei and his comrades at the plant one and a half years to revive the union and make it a strong, solid organization respected by the workers. The union has run two campaigns to raise wages and improve working conditions. The first included two work-to-rule "strikes" in 2006, which resulted in 14 per cent wage increases, abolition of regular overtime and a new bonus system. The second included a one day strike in February 2007, which resulted in an agreement to prevent outsourcing work and the use of agency labour at the site and other financial and social improvements for the workers.
The offensive and, more importantly, the victory of the Ford workers has had an explosive effect in Russia, where unions rarely gain attention in the mainstream media. Charismatic and steadfast in his principles, Alexei became a media favourite. The March issue of Russia's edition of Forbes featured the title "Trade unions against capital" and stated it is useless to fight against organized workers. While the trade union broke through the information blockade, before long it faced a renewed counter-offensive by employers including a series of illegal lay-offs, arrests and reprisals.
Today the principal demands of the Ford workers include, besides pay increases, recognition of harmful operations and opposition to outsourcing. "At TNCs, the workers are under enormous pressure," says Alexei. "People are being hooked on overtime. They get a worker used to overtime so he or she can work another hundred hours doubling their pay, but all at the expense of their health. And who will count the time and money it will take this worker to restore his or her damaged health afterwards? They keep telling us 'the production
is safe, not harmful for health'. I never in my life saw a welding shop or a paint shop where dangers to health were not recognized," he says.
Alexei is optimistic about the prospects of union organizing in Russia. "The prospects for trade unionism in the auto industry are great. The truth is that Russians will no longer put up with the situation of 'natives' ready to work for 'glass beads' and 'firewater'. And the understanding that only united workers can resist the power of money and laws made to protect employer comes as quickly," says Alexei.
Alexei's union belongs to the Interregional Autoworkers' Trade Union (IATU) in Russia. The IATU's application for affiliation to the IMF will be considered at the Central Committee in November this year.