The Reconstruction of Soviet Industrial Relations under Gorbachev
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425458910133932 |
| Date | 01 January 1989 |
| Pages | 10-16 |
| Published date | 01 January 1989 |
| Author | Noel Hibbert |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
THE RECONSTRUCTION OF SOVIET
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS UNDER
GORBACHEV
Marat V. Baglai, Vice-Rector of the Shvernik Higher Trade Union School, Moscow, talks to
Noel Hibbert Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations, Coventry Polytechnic
The Soviet Union is in the throes of "a revolution without shots", according to Mikhail
Gorbachev. Nowhere is this peaceful revolution more apparent than within Soviet industrial
relations. The need radically to transform the bureaucratic over-centralised command economy
created by Stalin 60 years ago, which resulted in the "immobilism" of the Brezhnev years
in the 1970s, is expressed in the two concepts of glasnost (openness) and perestroika
(reconstruction). Quite simply, for Gorbachev and his reformist leadership[1], a drastic increase
in the productivity of labour by Soviet enterprises cannot be reduced to the simple introduction
of more Western new technology. New forms of socialist democracy are called for. The
democratisation of workplace relationships, according to the new CPSU Programme[2], entails
the need for work collectives to have accessibility to information if they are to institute a
democratic accountability by work groups over the management of their enterprises. At the
27th CPSU Congress in February 1986, Gorbachev criticised the Soviet trade unions for
"dancing cheek-to-cheek with their plant directors". He said they needed to assume a much
more vigorous role as articulators of the grievances of Soviet workers.
A new law on state enterprises came into operation
on 1 January 1988. This represents not only a
radical break with the old centralised, bureaucratic
commandism of the past through the introduction
of autonomous, self-financing enterprises, albeit
in a slimline but still stratified economy, but self-
management will be introduced into plants so that
every level of management from plant director
down to shop supervisor will undergo election by
secret ballot every five years. Also, a council of
work collectives will be elected in each enterprise
every three years by a general meeting of the
workers. This process has already begun. A worker
from an Omsk gearbox factory told
Pravda
recently:
"If anyone had told me a few months back that
I would be taking part in an event like this, I'd never
have believed him. Just imagine, we're electing our
director ourselves. .
."[3].
Crucial for the success of Gorbachev's recon-
struction programme will be the role of Soviet trade
unions. Briefly, what is their role in Soviet industry?
The fundamental role of trade unions within the
Soviet system was determined at the 10th Party
Congress in March 1921. Three competing
resolutions were placed before the Congress,
pointing in quite different directions. First, the
"Workers Opposition", led by Shliapnikov, argued
that the trade unions should be independent of the
state and administer major sectors of the economy
along syndicalist lines. They should be directly
representative of workers' interests at all times even
if this meant conflict with the state. Second,
Trotsky and Bukharin advocated that the unions
should be subordinated to the state; their role was
to manage labour resources, impose labour
discipline and improve productivity, directly at the
behest of the state. They should be a transmission
mechanism for party initiatives. Third, Lenin and
Tomsky presented a compromise position, based
on the thesis of the "dual functioning trade union";
this policy received overwhelming endorsement
and has dominated the theory and practice of
Soviet unions to the present day.
Briefly, Lenin conceded the point that unions
should help raise productivity and discipline
workers. However, unscrupulous managers may
attempt to denude workers of their legal rights,
hence Soviet unions must defend the workers'
interest against bureaucratic malpractice. In other
words, trade union leaders have to inspire their
members to increase productivity and thus living
standards for all Soviet citizens, whilst also
ER 11,1
1989
10
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