VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
The Leningrad Trade Union Federation (LTUF), a non-governmental inter-regional association of St Petersburg and Leningrad Region trade unions, was established on the initiative of affiliated trade unions in March 1991 as the legal successor to the Leningrad Regional Council of Trade Unions. The federation unites about 750,000 trade union members and is the largest and most influential public organisation in north-west Russia.
Priority issues for the trade unions in protecting the social and economic rights of hired workers include: a permanent and well-equipped work place, decent pay, normal labour conditions and time-off, and reliable social guarantees. These are the same objectives first pursued way back in the beginning of the last century by the Central Bureau of St Petersburg Workers' Trade Unions, the first trade union centre in Russia. Set up on 6 November 1905, that regional association was the backbone of the federation and made it possible for separate trade unions to pursue a uniform policy in defence of the rights of working people.
Today LTUF coordinates the work of 43 trade union organisations comprising about 5,500 local and primary trade union organisations. Among the largest trade unions in the region are the organisations of education and research workers, medical workers, civil servants, municipal employees, service workers, cultural professionals and agricultural workers.
Establishing and developing a social partnership system in the region is one of the federation's major achievements. The first tripartite agreements in Russia on cooperation on social and economic policy between government executive authorities, trade unions and employers' associations were entered into in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region in 1991. Those agreements have become an integral part of the local social policy and have done a great deal to maintain stability there.
In addition to tripartite agreements, social partners have recently begun concluding minimum wage agreements. Both in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, the minimum wage significantly exceeds the average throughout Russian and the St Petersburg agreement is considered one of the country's best because it does not include in the minimum wage (currently 6,890 roubles) either incentives or compensation.
Cooperation agreements are the foundation of the successful relationship between the LTUF and St Petersburg and Leningrad Region legislatures and election commissions, the St Petersburg and Leningrad Region branches of the Social Security Fund, the St Petersburg and Leningrad Region branch of the Russian Pension Fund, the prosecutor's offices of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region and the State Labour Inspectorate for St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.
LTUF has a press-service, and publishes the monthly magazine Edinstvo (Unity) for trade union activists and, since September 2006, Ploschad Truda (Labour Square), a popular weekly intended for the residents of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. Every week the federation broadcasts a TV and a radio programme.
LTUF maintains contacts with trade union centres in Europe, Asia and the Middle East as well as with some international trade union associations. Using the experience, facilities and research of its partners abroad, the federation is helping to create a world trade union movement.
