9 February, 2010Instead of protecting labour rights prosecutor's office clings to the absurd 'extremist' charges against ITUA. District court approves this anti-union and anti-labour attitude, as the February 3 decision clearly suggests.
RUSSIA: On February 3, 2010 a court hearing took place in Tver, Russia. The Interregional Autoworkers' Trade Union (ITUA), an IMF affiliate, tried to hold the local prosecutor's office accountable for its anti-union position. However, the court declined to satisfy the union's demands.
In November 2008 Dmitri Kozhnev, leader of the ITUA-affiliated union at 'TsentroSvarMash' plant in Tver, wrote a letter to the prosecutor's office, urging the authorities to investigate poor working conditions, lack of health and safety measures and low wages at the plant.
However, several such letters resulted in the prosecutor's office investigating the union instead of the employer. All members of a rather small ITUA organization at 'TsentroSvarMash' were summoned to the prosecutor's office for questioning.
When the employer decided to get rid of Kozhnev and fired him, the prosecutor's office didn't do anything, even though the management acted illegally and Kozhnev was reinstated later by court's decision.
While the authorities did nothing to protect 'TsentroSvarMash' workers, pressure on ITUA was gradually increasing.
Several ITUA materials, including an IMF leaflet, were deemed 'extremist' by the court and joined the ranks of far-right pamphlets and Islamic fundamentalist propaganda, however the court refused even to disclose its full decision to ITUA, citing the fact that the union was 'not a side of the court case'.
This legal mess culminated on February 3, 2010, when the district court decided that the prosecutor's office's failure to investigate 'TsentroSvarMash' was justified. Thus the whole anti-union and anti-labour attitude of the authorities received approval.
On January 20, 2010, the All-Russia Confederation of Labor (VKT) and the Russian Labor Confederation (KTR) lodged a complaint to the International Labour Organization's Committee on Freedom of Association regarding mass and systematic violations of trade union rights in Russia. The complaint, which also document attacks on ITUA members, is supported by the IMF, the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).