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

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS REFERENCES LITERATUR IN THE UKRAINE
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presence to five branches (teachers, miners,
transportations, medical workers and football
players) but remained too small to break the
dominance of ex-official unions.
Remarkably, throughout 1994-1996 the leaders
of independent trade unions could not work
out an effective work strategy in conditions
of economic crises (Razumkov Centre 1997).
With the background of harsh economic
conditions, these unions lacked organizational
experience and technical capacities except
organizing militant actions. While the FPU
employed one of the best economists and
lawyers, independent unions could employ
experts only – mostly those who could not find
another job. However, financial resources of
these unions were limited (interviews). It also
lacked experienced leaders in newly emerging
enterprise-based unions, as the capacity of the
KVPU to educate all new-comers was also
restricted. It should be recognized that such
a disadvantage originates from the initially
unequal starting conditions of both – ex-official
and independent unions. While the former
retained and expanded their financial base (as
described in the previous section), alternative
trade unions could solely offer their members
benefits of the solidarity-driven struggle for
better life but none of immediate material
benefits implicitly expected by workers.
Meanwhile, the non-agreement of these unions
with the prevailing consumerist-like
union-worker relationships makes
further attempts at expansion more
resource-demanding.
The expansion of independent trade unions
within the traditional core branches of the
economy (coal-mining and metallurgy)
coincide with the consolidation of oligarchies
and financial-industrial groups. The resulting
harassment and persecution of the free
trade unions intensified in the late 1990s
under Kuchma’s Presidency. Between 2002
and 2004, the KVPU President was beaten
five times by the police in public places. His
family members were persecuted and in 2004
his son was kidnapped and heavily beaten.
Leaders of regional and local trade union
organizations were persecuted, as well. Many
newly established local union organizations
were literally immediately destroyed either by
local authorities or employers and independent
unions (interviews and the numerous KVPU’s
complaints to the ILO). Because of the heavy
persecution and harassment, the KVPU filed a
complaint to the ILO Committee on Freedom
of Association (Case 2388). While it took
the ILO and the government several years to
investigate the complaint, the government
tried to deny any assaults and kept excluding
the KVPU representatives from the delegations
to the annual ILO conferences. It is only after
2004 when Yushenko came to be elected
President of Ukraine did the constraints on
the Confederation’s activities on the part of the
government became looser.
As the example of independent miners’ unions
demonstrates, the prospects of the collective
action, more common in the independent than
ex-official trade unions, have been constrained,
as no law on industrial protests was adopted
and no procedures for their solution put in
place. At that point of time, making actions
illegal appears an easy means to prevent them.
It is worth noting that the adoption of the
law on collective labour disputes (see above)
correlated with the decline in union militancy.