Translated material
Minimum wage front
The trade union leader called on the prime minister to raise the minimum wage, despite the crisis
The Russian successors to the Soviet trade unions do not want to remain aloof from official politics. Yesterday’s meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the White House only confirmed that the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (essentially the successor of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions, with the same legal address) under the leadership of Mikhail Shmakov is ready to use the current difficult times for hired workers of all professions to strengthen its political influence.Although a counter process is also evident - the desire of the government during the escalation of the crisis, and accordingly protest sentiments, to share political and social responsibility with public organizations. Moreover, precisely those who still have “live” contact with a person in the workplace.
Vladimir Putin received representatives of trade unions almost without delay - apparently, so as not to awaken protest sentiments already in the halls of power. At the same time, he demonstrated that he was not so much interested in the opinion of federal officials from trade unions, but in fact, those who came with Mr. Shmakov - the leaders of the “primary organizations”. And 12 of them came to Mr. Putin, and representatives of the most problematic enterprises, such as AvtoVAZ , the Samara Motorostroitel plant, Uralkali AGOC, Uralvagonzavod, the Lenin mine from Kemerovo, the Bryansk plant Inductor Some of these enterprises are practically teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.
The Prime Minister, as usual, first explained the macroeconomic situation. This time with a focus on the labor market. According to him, by mid-March the number of officially registered unemployed in our country will reach 2 million people, 1.4 million have been transferred to part-time work or have gone on forced leave, and 560 thousand have been announced for layoffs. In response, the government launched activities to support regional programs to combat unemployment, for which it allocated 43.7 billion rubles from the treasury.
Mr. Putin once again said that Russia will live in crisis not only this year, but at least the next one. “The pace of global economic recovery is extremely low today,” the prime minister began from afar. “And we will enter 2010 on the trend of the global crisis.”
Thus, he seemed to ask or warn his “interlocutors from the workers” in advance not to demand much from the authorities. And even more so the impossible. “We have a deficit ( budget - Ed. ). We cannot inflate expenses if we do not have revenue. We must rebuild the structure of income and expenses. We will try to maintain inflation parameters, and I hope we will succeed. We will have to recalculate the budget for 2010 and subsequent ones from scratch.”
The Prime Minister finally roughly calculated the actual increase in pensions in 2009 - he came up with 20%. Within the subsistence level, he assured. And once again, he insistently recommended that businesses be socially responsible, and that trade unions should “snitch” on employers using illegal wage schemes.
“Unfortunately, “gray” remuneration schemes and salaries in envelopes have again begun to be used. This is not only theft of the budget, but it is a violation of the labor and future pension rights of citizens: citizens do not always delve into the details. It seems that they gave the salary in an envelope a little more - and that’s good. As a rule, no one thinks what’s next.” And then, according to the prime minister, things get very bad.
But Mr. Shmakov seemed to be thinking about something completely different. As soon as he was given the floor, he issued a thesis that the prime minister, it seems, least expected from him. On increasing the minimum wage. “We have seen seven anti-crisis priorities of the government,” said the country’s main trade unionist. - But there is nothing there about increasing wages. Based on the results of 2008, the minimum wage should be revised. And in 2010 it should increase by about a thousand rubles. We need this amount to be taken into account in the 2010 budget.” And he immediately curtsied to the Prime Minister: “This will also contribute to your wishes regarding increasing domestic demand.” They say that ordinary workers will receive more - they will have more money to buy something.
“Well, of course,” Mr. Putin seemed to agree. Only a second later he added: “You know, large enterprises, even before the crisis, were planning to optimize their work and lay off thousands of people in connection with this. But when the crisis struck, we decided not to do this in order to preserve human potential,” he noted. And what should they do now, Vladimir Putin asked Mikhail Shmakov: either fire and increase the minimum wage, or not fire and, accordingly, have what they had.
But Mr. Shmakov did not want to give up his political “trick.” After the meeting, he told reporters that he would not take a step back from raising the minimum wage, no matter what the cost. “This is the law, and the prime minister is obliged to implement it,” he harshly told reporters. Moreover, he ruled out a compromise with employers on this score, which the prime minister quite clearly hinted at.
He also said that trade unions are ready for anti-crisis protest actions, if required.
“We achieve our effect at the negotiating table, if this is not achievable, then we do not reject the methods that our colleagues use (in other countries - Ed. ),” said Mikhail Shmakov. And somehow he ambiguously reminded how the countries of the Old World are close and how far from us: “In France, the political tradition is to put their kings to the guillotine, our kings were shot, these are different ways of achieving the same goal.”
And at the end of his speech, the trade union leader called all the meeting participants to the traditional holiday protest - the May Day demonstration.