The Sotsprof trade union association intends to hold a congress on September 20, where it will announce the creation of an alternative organization to the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR), the Sotsprof website reported. As the association's chairman, Sergei Vostretsov, told Vedomosti, they plan to attract up to 7 million people (he currently estimates the organization's membership at 5 million) through disparate alternative trade unions. According to Vostretsov, these are the Federal Trade Union of Air Traffic Controllers, the Independent Trade Union of Miners, the Trade Union of Dockers, Motor Transport and Automotive Workers, Trade Unions of Bankers, and even Security Forces. According to Vostretsov, the FNPR has long since become a kind of "oligarch of trade unions" and is not engaged in a real fight for higher wages and other workers' rights. According to him, the new organization's fundamental principle will be non-interference in politics: "We have chosen a partner - the state."

The presidential administration tacitly supports the initiative of "Sotsprof", says an official close to it, it was an old idea, but during the crisis, in order not to rock the boat even more, the initiative was slowed down. In addition, the irritating factor was the resistance from the FNPR (even greater than from the opposition) to the passage of the law on the privatization of budget organizations, which prohibited the provision of direct subsidies from the state budget to most of them.

Work on creating an alternative trade union is being carried out with the support of the authorities, confirms a source close to the leadership of Sotsprof. He explains his dissatisfaction with the chairman of the FNPR, Mikhail Shmakov, by the fact that he is too independent a figure, but at the same time rather inert and will not be able to help the authorities cope with mass protests. In 2008, Sotsprof signed a protocol of intent with United Russia. And in 2010, Vostretsov joined the new composition of the Public Chamber.

Sotsprof has been unable to create a single trade union for over a year and a half, recalls FNPR Secretary Alexander Shershukov. For the failure of the plan, the curator of trade unions, deputy head of the internal policy department Nikolai Sidorov, was fired from the presidential administration a year ago. They managed to attract no more than 5,000-10,000 people to their side, while the FNPR has 27 million, he recalls.

According to Boris Kagarlitsky, director of the Institute of Globalization Problems, what is happening is connected not so much with the Kremlin's plans as with the crisis of trade unions: a year ago, the Confederation of Labor of Russia (KTR) and the All-Russian Confederation of Labor tried to unite, but a split occurred, and part of KTR is now uniting with Sotsprof. During an economic downturn, people hold on to their jobs and are not active in trade unions, the expert explains.

Trade union with the authorities