Heft36 1 - SFB 580 - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS REFERENCES LITERATUR IN THE UKRAINE
Shortly before the Presidential elections of
2004, the FPU concluded the alliance with
then-Prime Minister and candidate for
presidency, Viktor Yanukovych, who was
alleged of vote frauds once the elections took
place. The FPU, nevertheless, remained loyal
to its candidate. During the mass protests
against the vote fraud and this candidate,
identified later on as the Orange Revolution,
PU Olexandr Stoyan publicly appealed to the
President of Ukraine to use all possible means
to insure peace and prevent people from
protesting. In response, workers occupied the
central FPU building and Stoyan flee.
The new FPU President, Olexandr Yurkin,
initiated some reforms within FPU. As he told
in one of the interviews, the FPU embarked on
the process of the “internal reforms” bringing
the Federation out of the organizational forms
of the old Soviet unions’ association VTsRPS,
including the strengthening of the primary
organizations, branch trade unions, oblast
(provincial) union councils, and broadening of
their authorities. “Either we all modernize, or
die”, stated the FPU President 29 . The structural
reforms have hardly ever beenrealized, partly
because the activities of the trade unions were
often concentrated on retaining its property
and partly due to the resistance of the union
leaders of the regional and branch trade
unions.
Meanwhile, great efforts were put
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into the enhancement of the public
image and PR-policy. Under his
presidency, a new concept of the FPU
development 30 and a detailed plan of actions 31
come out. Both set an extensive scope of quite
ambitious goals for the FPU over the next
five years, including the creation of 4 million
workplaces, wage increases of four or five
minimum wage levels 32 , and the increase of
the living standards of workers up the Western
European ones. Unions committed themselves
to reform the medical and education spheres,
and facilitate the growth of the housing
markets. FPU also committed itself to finally
establish cooperation with other trade unions
and coordinate union activities across the
country 33 .
Following Yurkin’s resignation, the new congress
of the FPU, in spite of its announcement, has
never taken place. In November 2008, the FPU
Council elected the Party of Regions MP and
the President of the Donetsk regional council
of trade unions, Vasyl’ Khara, as the FPU
President. The FPU remained committed to
its previously adopted concept of development
and a plan of action under Khara’s Presidency.
But Khara’s presidency has been constantly
surrounded by numerous controversies. As he
was elected by the FPU Council and not by its
Congress (as the FPU Constitution stipulates),
the court of the city of Kyiv cancelled the decree
and legal findings issued earlier by the Ministry
of Justice confirming the legitimacy of Khara’s
election and presidency 34 . Meanwhile, the FPU
refused to cooperate with other trade unions
and concentrated on the preservation and
further commercialization of its properties.
In this light, the activities of the Federation
cannot be identified as those representing and
defending workers. Rather reforms of some
enterprise-based unions and attempts within
the branch unions remind us that the FPU
structure is far from being homogeneous and
coherent.