20 July, 2009A German delegation travelled to Russia to meet with the country's prime minister and Russian unions.
RUSSIA: A German delegation headed by Berthold Huber, IG Metall president and president of International Metalworkers' Federation, accompanied by representatives of VW and ThyssenKrupp Steel Works Councils paid visit to Russia 6-11 July.
In meeting with Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, Berthold Huber informed him about the role German trade unions are playing during the current economic crisis. Huber also raised with Putin the growing concern among the IMF and IMF affiliates about recent attacks against Russian trade union leaders and asked Putin to ensure that the crimes are thoroughly and transparently investigated.
In February 2009, Eugeny Ivanov, leader of the IMF-affiliated Russian Interregional Trade Union (ITUA) local union at the GM plant near St. Petersburg was assaulted outside his home and in June and July 2008, ITUA local union leaders Alexei Gramm and Sergey Bryzgalov were attacked in Taganrog. ITUA union leader Alexey Etmanov was also attacked in November 2008 in Vsevolozhsk.
To date, no one has been charged with any of these violent crimes.
The delegation paid visit to the VW plant in Kaluga. Within the plant the delegation met plant management, ITUA activists and members of the Automobile and Farm Machinery Workers' Union of Russia (AFW).
Representatives of both unions raised similar issues. ITUA informed the delegation about their demands to the VW management.
Negotiations on a number of issues should start soon. Both unions and IG Metall agreed on further contact and cooperation between trade unions' representatives at the plant level at Volkswagen in Russia and Germany, recognizing that an exchange of information is important for both sides.
At the visit's end Huber and Mikhail Tarassenko, President of the Miners' and Metallurgical Workers' Union of Russia (MMWU) and a member of the IMF Executive Committee took part in a press-conference that was held at the national information agency RIA-Novosti and was nationally broadcasted.