Expert board:

• Scientific Council of RAS on economic history;
• Research and Educational Center «The economic history of Central Russia and the Middle Volga region» of Ogarev Mordovia State University;
• Center of Economic History of  Lomonosov Moscow State University

Certificate of registration

Irina V. Shilnikova

National Research University “Higher School of Economics”,

Moscow, Russia, e-mail: shilnikova.i@gmail.com

THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS IN THE STRIKE MOVEMENT AT THE SOVIET INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES OF DIFFERENT OWNERSHIP FORMS IN 1922–1928

The article analyzes the role of trade unions in the course of the emergence, development and the eradication of strikes at industrial enterprises of different ownership forms in the years of the New Economic Policy. The study is based on materials of the archival funds of the All-Union Central Soviet of Trade Unions and trade unions committees that are stored in the State archive of the Russian Federation.

The attitude of trade unions to strikes depended primarily on the form of ownership in which the conflict took place. First of all, trade unions protected the interests of the state. Therefore strikes at state enterprises were stopped by all possible means – from persuasion and promises to the lockout and the arrest of the most active participants of the conflict. At the same time, trade unions have contributed to the strike on rentals, private concession companies, and even led by them. At that unwillingness of trade unions to compromise with the «private owners» could have positive consequences for the workers who provide the desired improvement in their situation, and extremely negative, related with the closure of enterprises and loss of jobs.

Keywords: New Economic Policy, labor relations, labor conflicts, strikes, trade unions, wages, working conditions, collective labor agreement, lease enterprise, concessions.

Download article in PDF