Heft36 1 - SFB 580 - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Heft36 1 - SFB 580 - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Heft36 1 - SFB 580 - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
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INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS REFERENCES LITERATUR IN THE UKRAINE<br />
Shortly before the Presidential elections of<br />
2004, the FPU concluded the alliance with<br />
then-Prime Minister and candidate for<br />
presidency, Viktor Yanukovych, who was<br />
alleged of vote frauds once the elections took<br />
place. The FPU, nevertheless, remained loyal<br />
to its candidate. During the mass protests<br />
against the vote fraud and this candidate,<br />
identified later on as the Orange Revolution,<br />
PU Olexandr Stoyan publicly appealed to the<br />
President of Ukraine to use all possible means<br />
to insure peace and prevent people from<br />
protesting. In response, workers occupied the<br />
central FPU building and Stoyan flee.<br />
The new FPU President, Olexandr Yurkin,<br />
initiated some reforms within FPU. As he told<br />
in one of the interviews, the FPU embarked on<br />
the process of the “internal reforms” bringing<br />
the Federation out of the organizational forms<br />
of the old Soviet unions’ association VTsRPS,<br />
including the strengthening of the primary<br />
organizations, branch trade unions, oblast<br />
(provincial) union councils, and broadening of<br />
their authorities. “Either we all modernize, or<br />
die”, stated the FPU President 29 . The structural<br />
reforms have hardly ever beenrealized, partly<br />
because the activities of the trade unions were<br />
often concentrated on retaining its property<br />
and partly due to the resistance of the union<br />
leaders of the regional and branch trade<br />
unions.<br />
Meanwhile, great efforts were put<br />
Seite page 232<br />
into the enhancement of the public<br />
image and PR-policy. Under his<br />
presidency, a new concept of the FPU<br />
development 30 and a detailed plan of actions 31<br />
come out. Both set an extensive scope of quite<br />
ambitious goals for the FPU over the next<br />
five years, including the creation of 4 million<br />
workplaces, wage increases of four or five<br />
minimum wage levels 32 , and the increase of<br />
the living standards of workers up the Western<br />
European ones. Unions committed themselves<br />
to reform the medical and education spheres,<br />
and facilitate the growth of the housing<br />
markets. FPU also committed itself to finally<br />
establish cooperation with other trade unions<br />
and coordinate union activities across the<br />
country 33 .<br />
Following Yurkin’s resignation, the new congress<br />
of the FPU, in spite of its announcement, has<br />
never taken place. In November 2008, the FPU<br />
Council elected the Party of Regions MP and<br />
the President of the Donetsk regional council<br />
of trade unions, Vasyl’ Khara, as the FPU<br />
President. The FPU remained committed to<br />
its previously adopted concept of development<br />
and a plan of action under Khara’s Presidency.<br />
But Khara’s presidency has been constantly<br />
surrounded by numerous controversies. As he<br />
was elected by the FPU Council and not by its<br />
Congress (as the FPU Constitution stipulates),<br />
the court of the city of Kyiv cancelled the decree<br />
and legal findings issued earlier by the Ministry<br />
of Justice confirming the legitimacy of Khara’s<br />
election and presidency 34 . Meanwhile, the FPU<br />
refused to cooperate with other trade unions<br />
and concentrated on the preservation and<br />
further commercialization of its properties.<br />
In this light, the activities of the Federation<br />
cannot be identified as those representing and<br />
defending workers. Rather reforms of some<br />
enterprise-based unions and attempts within<br />
the branch unions remind us that the FPU<br />
structure is far from being homogeneous and<br />
coherent.