Putin Addresses the Congress of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia

“The largest post-Soviet national trade union center in Russia, with a membership estimated between 28 and 31.5 million. The FNPR is widely recognized as the de facto successor to the Soviet era trade unions system, although the General Confederation of Trade Unions, as the umbrella organization of trade unions in the former Soviet Republics, is technically the equivalent of the former.” Wikipedia’s description.

This Address by Putin shows that much of the Soviet outlook to how the economy should function lives on in today’s Russia. The transcript also contains the key words spoken by Mikhail Shmakov, Chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia. The Kremlin provides this description of the event:

The congress, which takes place in Moscow from April 3 to 5, is attended by more than 600 delegates: heads of trade unions and trade unions, representatives of state authorities, chairmen of trade union committees of primary trade union organizations, veterans of the trade union movement, heads of educational institutions of trade unions, youth councils and commissions. The guests are representatives of national trade union centers from ten countries.

There’re some key words spoken by Putin that will be highlighted below to bear out the premise that part of the ideals of initial Russian political-economic thought that was articulated prior to the 1917 Revolution lives on today. All emphasis is mine:

Vladimir Putin: Dear Mikhail Viktorovich, Dear colleagues and friends,

First of all, thank you for inviting me to the XII Congress of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia.

Your association is one of the leading institutions of the Russian civil society and carries out a responsible mission: it protects the labor rights of employees of companies, enterprises, collectives of entire industries, those who work in the field of education, science, and culture. You are doing a lot to improve the legislation, to harmonize relations in the field of employment.

Here, the principles of social partnership between the state, business and trade unions have become a solid foundation. The corresponding norm, I emphasize, at the initiative of trade unions is now enshrined in the Constitution of Russia.

Such practical cooperation has been established within the framework of the Russian Trilateral Commission. Last year alone, it reviewed more than a hundred draft federal laws and government resolutions, including the draft federal budget, the budgets of the Mandatory Health Insurance Fund and the Social Fund.

I know, also from my own experience of working in the Government, that the commission sometimes has very intense disputes and heated discussions. I must say that this has always been the case and now the same thing happens when I attend some joint meetings with the Government, some issues are discussed, some colleagues talk about the expediency of making certain decisions, but some Government representatives directly say: no, this will not pass, the trade unions will not allow it.

I don't say anything superfluous, this is what happens in practical life, but it is the principle of the parties, the openness of their positions, the understanding that the interests of the country and millions of our citizens are behind every action that guarantees that decisions are made in a balanced manner. Well, in practical work, we are in constant contact with the chairman of trade unions, Mikhail Viktorovich, on certain issues that are of the greatest interest to employees. Thus, the balance of interests of employees, business and the state is observed.

The next trilateral general agreement between the Government, employers and trade unions is scheduled to be signed in the near future. Among its priorities are forecasting the country's personnel needs, developing targeted training mechanisms, popularizing working professions and improving the social security of workers. I hope for your fruitful cooperation in all these areas, especially since they are an integral part of the upcoming large-scale work to achieve the national development goals.

In my recent Address to the Federal Assembly, I think you have noticed this, I outlined in detail the program of our actions. Let me remind you that it was largely formed during meetings with enterprise teams, workers, engineers, and managers. It is based on the interests of citizens, their right to work, to a decent life in every region of our country, in every city and village.

Here, one of the key factors is an affordable, high-quality education, a real opportunity for a person to acquire a good, interesting, promising profession and to improve their skills throughout their career and life. Today, this is an absolute narrative, a requirement of time.

According to the Message, the national project "Cadres" will be launched next year. I am sure that the trade unions will take the most active and interested part in its implementation. We will continue to strengthen the link of educational levels and establish their close partnership with employers. I am referring to the development of the career guidance system, which is already operating in the country's schools, and the implementation of the federal project "Professionalitet", which will train about a million specialists in working professions for the sectors of the economy, including electronics, IT technologies, and pharmaceuticals, on the basis of updated educational and production centers, in the context of the requirements imposed by business, light industry, aircraft and shipbuilding, and so on. In the future, cooperation between educational organizations and enterprises will cover the entire secondary education system, including training personnel for schools, hospitals and polyclinics, for the service sector, tourism, and so on.

We will additionally support higher education institutions that launch HR and technology projects with regions, companies in the real sector of the economy and the social sphere – the Priority 2030 program will be extended for them. Here, too, I hope for the support of traditionally strong and reputable university trade unions.

In particular, the Address set a task to increase the remuneration of teachers of fundamental disciplines in higher education institutions. I don't think I need to explain how important this is. Starting from September 1 of this year, we will start implementing this solution in a pilot mode. I ask you to ensure public and, above all, trade union control here.

So that graduates of colleges, technical schools, and universities can be sure that they will get an interesting job, and work in their specialty, we form a forecast of the personnel demand of the economy. We are talking about understanding how many people we will need in the economy, how many technologists, builders, designers, teachers, social workers, and so on, and how many specialists the country will need in five years and in the longer term. And already on this basis, it is necessary to set control figures for admission to educational institutions, that is, to determine the volume of training of such specialists.

The forecast will be updated regularly, taking into account business activity, the state of economic sectors, as well as the situation on the labor market. I would like to note here that thanks to the actions of the Government, business, regions, and trade unions, we have achieved a significant reduction in the unemployment rate. Today it is at record lows-less than three percent. And the dynamics are good: in 2023, unemployment in Russia fell below three percent for the first time-it was 2.9 percent, and in February of this year it fell to another 2.8 percent. This is one of the most important indicators of the state of the economy as a whole.

At the same time, I would like to emphasize that given the demographic challenges in the coming years, the Russian economy will experience a high demand and even a shortage of personnel. This is absolutely certain, we must understand this and we will live with it in the coming years. In these conditions, it is critically important to increase labor productivity, modernize industry, the agro-industrial complex, the service sector, and many other sectors of the economy and social sphere with the help of digital technologies, production automation, and modern management processes, which in turn should directly lead to improving the working conditions of specialists and increasing their incomes.

Industry competence centers should help in this work, where the best practices of lean manufacturing will be generalized and replicated. We will continue to create such centers throughout the country.

Further. As it was said in the Message, the next six years should be a time of accelerated industrial development of Russia. In our domestic market, the share of domestic goods should increase: equipment, machine tools, vehicles, medicines, consumer goods, and so on. We can and will produce all this on our own, in much larger volumes than now. And what is this? We understand that these are structural changes in the economy, ensuring its growth rates, GDP growth rates and decent wages. We don't have much choice: either we need to import labor from abroad, or increase labor productivity.

Modern production facilities and jobs should appear everywhere, in all regions of the country. We will additionally set up tools and mechanisms to support businesses and the development of our territories. At the same time, investment incentives will be linked to higher salaries for employees, with improved social packages, including high-quality healthcare and recreation for specialists.

I would like to emphasize once again: only where work is adequately paid, where people are taken care of and their working conditions are taken care of, will professional, qualified personnel work. In modern conditions, this is not an empty phrase, it is generally understandable for all experts: such factors as the level of training of specialists, education, and healthcare have become real factors of production efficiency. This is certainly the future. Only there will globally competitive products be produced, which means that only there can truly sovereign development be possible. This is exactly the task we set for ourselves.

I would like to repeat once again: the expansion of Russia's technological and industrial potential and the strengthening of the domestic economy should be directly converted into an increase in the welfare of our citizens and an increase in wages. In the next six years, the share of wages in the country's gross domestic product should grow steadily. See what happened here: it is already growing in our country – in 2022 its share was 38.5 percent, and in 2023 it is already 40.7 percent. This affects – of course, trade unions should think about this first – people's well-being, but it also affects purchasing power, and therefore the economy and entire industries. Of course, everything should be balanced, but this is a factor.

In this regard, I would like to emphasize that the most important task of trade unions is to be, as they say, the first supporters of intensive, high-quality renewal of the economy and social sphere. If you allow me, you should push the management of enterprises, owners of enterprises, management of institutions and authorities to modernize, to introduce the best technologies – there is no need to be afraid of excessive release of workers, we do not actually have unemployment, we are not in danger of this in the coming years, because such work and such changes in general, of course, meet the interests of Russian citizens.

We will definitely continue to index the minimum wage, which has already been significantly raised with the assistance of trade unions. Here, your leadership and I have been constantly discussing this issue in recent months and in recent years. Mikhail Viktorovich has always paid special attention to this.

By 2030, the minimum wage should almost double to 35 thousand rubles, which will have a positive impact on salaries in the economy and in the public sector.

By the way, the Government has instructed that next year, as part of pilot projects in the regions, work out a new model of remuneration for state employees, including employees of education, health, culture and science. This is a difficult job, it is capital-intensive, but, of course, it is necessary. I very much hope that in such a positive and mature dialogue with the trade unions we will find a solution.

Of course, it is very important to achieve an increase in the income of these qualified specialists who are needed in the country. It is necessary to eliminate the wage gap in different regions. As I have already said, we will first conduct pilot projects in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and at the beginning of 2027 we will have to switch to the so-called industry-specific remuneration systems for public sector employees across the country.

And of course, wages at enterprises of any form of ownership should be paid without delay, in full. The situation here should be monitored jointly by trade unions, the Federal Service for Labor and Employment, and the Prosecutor's Office.

Dear colleagues!

I would like to highlight the contribution of trade unions to the national support of our children, our heroes who defend the Fatherland during a special military operation. The trade union movement is involved in collecting and sending aid to fighters, as well as humanitarian supplies for residents of front-line areas. I want to sincerely thank everyone for this work, thank you very much. In particular, I would like to express my gratitude to those who are now, in fact, reviving the system of trade unions, protecting the interests and rights of workers in our historical territories of Donbass and Novorossiya. This is a difficult job, difficult and sometimes dangerous, and very necessary. “thanks.

In conclusion, I would like to say this. The trade union movement has always been built not only around the protection of labor and social rights of citizens, which is certainly the main thing, but also on the basis of such values as mutual support, truth and justice, service to one's people and the country as a whole.

Our common task is to ensure that these values are fully shared by future generations of Russia. So that today's schoolchildren, students, young people – as they say, from the school bench-develop respect for honest, responsible work. So that they grow up on the examples of our outstanding compatriots, representatives of labor dynasties.

There are a lot of such people – real heroes – both in our history and today. About their life, military exploits and labor achievements, of course, you need to make films, write books, and so on. And of course, we need to tell young people more about them.

In this regard, I ask trade unions to actively participate in our new national project "Youth and Children", to cooperate fruitfully with the Movement of the First, Rosmolodezh, and the Znanie society. Including as mentors: you have a lot of such people who, of course, are already performing and can join in this work-share their experience with future specialists and, of course, learn from young people themselves. It should be a road with traffic in both directions. We need to feel new generations of people, understand them, and respond to their requests. This is the dictate of time, of colossal changes, the pace of these changes in our time, and we are participants in all these processes.

The Russian economy and labor market are developing dynamically. Advanced technologies are being mastered and entire industries are being updated, and a different employment structure is being formed with new requirements for the professional level of specialists, their knowledge and skills.

All our legislative innovations, plans, programs, and financial investments should work for economic growth, improving the quality of life, and improving the well-being of Russian families. This is our shared ultimate goal. In other words, each of our decisions must be not only verified, effective, and financially secure. It should be fair to people, change their lives for the better.

I am sure that by acting in solidarity, based on the interests of the country and our citizens, we will definitely achieve our goals together.

Thank you for your attention.

M.Shmakov: Dear comrades, Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

Yesterday, on the first day of the congress, a detailed report of the General Council of the FNPR was presented to the congress. A resolution has been adopted, in which the work of the FNPR from 2019 to 2024, to this day, is recognized as satisfactory. 42 speakers took part in the discussion of the report.

In my short speech, I would like not only to report on how we assess the situation in the social and labor sphere, but also to draw attention to a number of issues on which social partners need to determine a balanced position.

Over the past five years, a number of new circumstances – a pandemic, a special military operation-have significantly affected relations between countries, external and internal economic relations, and the state's economic and social policy. High rates of digitalization, business life and economy accelerated. The share of remote and mixed-mode employees has increased significantly. So-called flexible forms of employment were introduced. Each of these phenomena has had a major impact on the labor market and wage dynamics.

Despite a record number of sanctions, the Russian economy withstood the pressure and showed economic growth, as confirmed yesterday by the Government's report in the State Duma. Our enemies hoped that economic pressure would lead to social problems, which in turn would undermine society and bring some people under the leadership of puppet masters to the streets. This desired development was openly discussed, but it did not happen.

First, our economy has survived.

Secondly, the state has taken crucial steps to support the real sector of the economy. Instead of sterilizing the ruble and buying foreign currency, we have switched to subsidizing and a policy of cheap loans for industry. It turned out that the post-industrial era has not yet fully arrived. In addition to virtual numbers, you need machine tools, metal, grain, coal, oil, and so on.

Third, working relations between social partners – the state, business, and trade unions-have played an important role in maintaining social stability and solving emerging problems in a timely manner. Since 2020, after amendments are made to the main law of the country, the Constitution, the implementation of the principles of social partnership is mandatory.

Article 75.1 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation provides for ensuring social partnership in our country. At the same time, article 114 specifies that the Government ensures the implementation of the principles of social partnership in the sphere of regulating labor and related relations.

Thus, social partnership is officially elevated to the rank of a state institution and a constitutional guarantee, and, importantly, it works not in words, but in deeds.

The main document of social partnership on an all-Russian scale is the general agreement between all-Russian unions of trade unions, all-Russian employers ' associations and the Government of the Russian Federation, as you, Mr Putin, quite rightly just said. The parties to the Russian Trilateral Commission are responsible for its implementation. RTC meetings are held monthly. Over the past five years, more than 450 pressing socio-economic issues have been considered.

It is necessary to mention the problems. Although social partnership is a constitutional guarantee, its principles are often ignored by both employers and public authorities. Some plenipotentiaries in the districts, federal ministries, and independent employers refuse to accept a social partnership that is fixed on paper in the form of an agreement, which is supposedly not part of their area of responsibility.

In this regard, there is a suggestion. First, the regulations on ministries should be supplemented with instructions on the development of social partnership in the industry. We hope that the new Government will do this. Secondly, all employers must participate in social partnership, i.e. be members of industry and regional agreements, enter into a collective agreement, and be a member of an association of employers. In Russia today, there is only one employer association among business associations – the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. Therefore, in our opinion, all employers should be members of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs or its regional branches, otherwise they cannot be certified as employers with all the ensuing consequences. And, apparently, it is time to remove from the legislation the concept of "other representative bodies of employees", which are used in articles on collective agreements. Trade unions do everything, and there are no other representative bodies of employees in practice.

At some point, we were faced with the problem of calculating the minimum wage-a social guarantee for wages. The problem was related to the method of calculating it. The minimum wage began to be calculated not from the expenses of citizens, but from income. This has led to a slowdown in its growth and the need for your intervention, Mr Putin.

The current method of calculating the minimum wage was suspended, and its increase was made manually. Since this year, it is 19,242 rubles. Even today, the minimum wage exceeds the cost of living by 14.2 percent.

In your Address to the Federal Assembly, Vladimir Vladimirovich, you outlined the prospect of increasing the minimum wage to 35 thousand rubles by 2030. We support this and believe that in the long run it is necessary to move towards the minimum consumer budget target in order to calculate the minimum wage based on it. But this is, of course, a higher figure. According to our calculations, the minimum consumer budget excluding the family load in the fourth quarter of 2023 amounted to 49,951 rubles.

For many years, trade unions have been pushing for a progressive scale of personal income taxation. First, an additional gradation of income tax was introduced for individuals with incomes of more than five million rubles in the amount of 15 percent. And just recently, Mr President, you supported this position by stating that it is necessary to finalize the scale of taxes on personal income, and this is absolutely true.

Dear comrades,

The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia is the largest public organization in Russia and the main element of civil society. We have about 20 million people in our ranks, which is a third of all employees in the country, and including families-almost half of all citizens of the country. We represent the only public organization that has the right to work within enterprises and organizations. In addition, we have an ideology that many political parties, including parliamentary ones, do not have. And we have not changed this ideology for more than a hundred years. Briefly, we can say that our ideology is based on three main principles that are our goals: a decent workplace and decent wages, labor protection and safety, and the implementation of social guarantees. This also actually fully describes the concept of decent work.

Our common goal in the country is to build a society where all citizens cooperate to achieve common results and benefits, where everyone has the opportunity to work and develop as an individual, enjoy economic freedom and receive protection from poverty and unemployment. In such a society, the rights to a decent life are guaranteed for all people, regardless of their gender, age, health status, nationality, family and social status, religious and political beliefs. We see Russia as a social state, whose policy is aimed at creating conditions that ensure a decent life and free human development.

Our mission is to represent and protect the social and labor rights, industrial, professional, economic and social interests of employees, their honor and dignity.

Over the past 30 years, we have put forward many demands to the Government and the state, and now we can state that national projects in the medium-term development program of the country until 2030, put forward by the President in his Address to the Federal Assembly in March this year, indicate ways to solve most of the problems that we discussed. At the beginning of my speech, I focused only on some of them for example, but there are much more suggestions for solving social problems in the Message.

Under these conditions, we must make it our main task to achieve the goals set out in the President's Address to the Federal Assembly until 2030, including the formation of a fair economy based on decent wages for every employee, equal guarantees in the sphere of work for all workers, regardless of the form of employment, and the real application of the principles of social partnership when making managerial decisions.

We have everything for success: a tool – the social partnership system, without exaggeration, the most developed and effective in the world. There are workers organized in trade unions, there are responsible employers and an active Government, especially, we hope, after the reassignment. Everything should work out.

There is another factor – stability in society is largely due to us, the FNPR. In order for a ship to be stable, as sailors say, or stable, during storms and storms, it must have stabilizing elements and devices. Mass trade unions are such elements of sustainability in society, reflecting the demands, aspirations and will of workers. They are inertial, but they are also unshakable.

<…>

Vladimir Putin: Dear colleagues and friends,

When we hold similar events, but they do not take such a large scale, but nevertheless large-scale events with colleagues from law enforcement agencies, then after several general reports, the press is removed, and we already have a more substantive and frank conversation on the relevant areas of responsibility.

In this case, this will not work out due to the specifics of your work, but nevertheless, what would I like to say in conclusion?

Everyone understands the conditions we live in. We have been placed in a situation where the country is forced to defend its interests by armed means, its people, its future, and its sovereignty. There is not a single superfluous word here. And the most important condition for our common success – only the head of the trade unions has said this quite clearly and emotionally – is the unity of the Russian multinational society. This is the main, basic condition for our success. And in this regard, of course, and judging by what the investigation is now giving, we have every reason to believe that the main purpose of the organizers of the bloody, terrible terrorist act in Moscow was precisely to damage our unity. There are no other targets, and there are none, because Russia cannot be the target of terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists. We have a country that demonstrates a unique example of inter-confessional harmony and unity, inter-religious unity, inter-ethnic unity. And in the external arena, it behaves in such a way that it can hardly be an object of attack from Islamic fundamentalists. But the goal of undermining the unity of Russian society, especially in modern conditions, is certainly visible.

It is clear that trade unions have their own specific tasks, as Mikhail Viktorovich just said, and I also said in my brief opening speech. You know, we have succeeded so far, and I very much hope that we will succeed in the near future, in a more distant historical perspective, to treat very responsibly the functions assigned to us by the law, the Constitution and the very meaning of the existence of administrative authorities at all levels, entrepreneurs and trade unions. This social responsibility is always important, always, but in modern conditions it is becoming extremely important.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that, despite all the difficulties of today, we are not putting the economy into wartime mode, there is no such thing. Yes, we are concentrating our efforts, administrative resources, and financial resources on the development of defense industries. There are people here who know what the defense industries are and how they relate to other industries, and how – when I spoke, I saw nods of agreement with what I said – the increase in wages for the light industry, the food industry, and agriculture affects them, because the purchasing power of the population is increasing. It's all very interconnected.

Nevertheless, we are not putting the economy on a war footing, and everything is quite balanced at the moment. We do not cancel any social guarantees for employees, we fully comply with them, and do not fully comply, and even tighten the responsibility of all authorities for their compliance. I very much look forward to our joint, consolidated work to achieve national goals.

Thank you very much.

One of the most important points is the following and is something that was articulated as a requirement of Capitalist society by John K. Galbraith in American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power in 1952 when he proposed the need for a countervailing power to offset that of business and government:

Thus, social partnership is officially elevated to the rank of a state institution and a constitutional guarantee, and, importantly, it works not in words, but in deeds.

The result provides one of the major structural differences between Russia’s political-economy and that of the Neoliberal West where labor is preyed upon along with its ever-diminishing social support system. Some recall that the Soviet Union was promoted as the Workers Paradise, which was far more an ideal at the time than reality. And indeed, it’s only now beginning to live up to that long ago promotion, although it’s no longer spoken of as such. However, what we’re seeing is that sort of society being built where the underlying goal is promotion/development of people so they can perform the tasks they are best suited to perform—and to continue to improve their skills at those tasks.

All of what was expressed above is why the Neoliberal West can’t abide Russia or what its allies in the Global Majority want to promote. Yes, the very imperfect USSR was broken only to form a new stronger union based on the lessons learned from its defeat. As stated, Russia has tools to do the work needed to build a very strong and prosperous nation. That work won’t be done by 2030 or 2040. Maybe by 2060 or so provided complacency doesn’t invade. Putin didn’t say this but the entirety of Russia’s economy is essentially a war economy because to battle the Neoliberals the entire economy must be developed, not just the MIC segment, as the non-MIC sectors are also weapons for Russia’s freedom just as is Russia’s national solidarity.

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