ABSTRACT
The transition occurring in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is clearly having a dramatic impact on labour relations and labour markets. The shift from a centrally planned system of production and allocation to a market economy is fundamentally changing the relationship between enterprise managers, the workforce, the state and the trade unions. Privatisation and restructuring augur nothing less than a complete transformation of civic and work-life in the region. In the West the dominant discourse concerning the transition-perhaps most clearly captured by Francis Fukuyama’s (1992) notion of the ‘end of history’— sees current events in terms of a process of modernisation along western lines through the birth of a new civil society conceived out of the union of a market economy and political democracy. It is assumed by many that, with the withering of the central state planning and control apparatus and the flourishing of economic privatisation, the societies of the region will, given time, become just like those of Western Europe or North America (e.g., Fleissner 1994; Targetti
1992; Freeman 1992; and Silverman and Yanowitch 1993).1 Within these new societies, it is argued, old institutions which were ‘deformed’ under Soviet influence will finally be able to operate as they ‘should’, which is to say that they will take on the characteristics of their corresponding institutions in Western Europe or North America (e.g., Gordon and Klopov 1992; Clarke 1993; Fogel and Etcheverry 1994; Hanson 1997).2 The trade unions, many of which played significant roles in the events of 1989, are viewed within this discourse to be crucial elements in the new societies whose role it is to serve as guardians of many civil rights and to act as ‘responsible’ partners in the transition to capitalism (Egorov 1996; ICFTU 1996; FTUI 1994; Silverman and Yanowitch 1992, 1993). Hence, whereas under central planning the role of the official trade unions was to serve as the ‘transmission belts’ of the central planners by ensuring production quotas were met (Pravda and Ruble 1986), it is assumed that, once the transition is complete, they will act first and foremost as representatives of the workers, whose interests they will further and protect through the practice of free collective bargaining and participation in tripartite negotiations with government and employers over such things as pensions or minimum wage levels. Indeed, many western trade unions and labour organisations have spent large amounts of time and money running seminars and educational workshops in the region to train local trade unionists to operate more along western lines. For example, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has established offices in several CEE countries and run conferences concerning matters such as setting up pension plans, financial accounting, and running union elections (ICFTU 1996). The International Metalworkers’ Federation trade secretariat has similarly run workshops for the new and/or newly democratising metal unions in the region (Herod 1998b; for more on the various international trade secretariats themselves, see Busch 1983 and Windmuller 1980), whilst the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations’ Free Trade Union Institute (FTUI) has provided organising assistance, union-to-union exchanges, and research and technical support to unions in the region (FTUI 1994; Herod 1998a).3
