Ukrainian Nuclear Workers Paid at Last

Ukraine's nuclear power workers have "won their long and difficult struggle in defence of their constitutional right to have their wages paid."

The news was announced yesterday by Alexander Yurkin, President of the Ukraine Atom Trade Union (ATU), in a message to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Yurkin is Vice-President of the ICEM, to which the ATU is affiliated at the global level.

PAID AT LAST
Full wages for the first time in more than two years

The nuclear workers' wages have been paid in full this March, Yurkin reports, and the wage backlog is being cleared. The payments had been promised several times by the Ukrainian authorities since the wage crisis in the sector built up in 1998. However, the pledges were not kept in practice.

Work on the repayments began in earnest after the new government headed by Viktor Yushenko took office, Yurkin notes. At a special ATU delegates' conference on the issue last December, Deputy Prime Minister Yuliy Timoshenko guaranteed that full wage payments, in line with collective agreements, would resume by this March.

Since 1998, the ATU and the ICEM have been campaigning against massive delays in payments to Ukrainian nuclear workers. At one stage, wages were six months in arrears. By February of last year, the nuclear workers had introduced go-slow measures and were threatening an indefinite strike at Chernobyl and other nuclear power stations until wages were paid in full. The workers and their many supporters set up "tent cities" around the power stations.

Responsibly, the ATU averted any forms of action that might have compromised safety. At the same time, both the ICEM and the ATU alerted the international community to the dangers of the situation. The wage arrears were in themselves a serious risk factor, as they greatly added to the psychological pressures on key workers in the Ukrainian nuclear sector.

In response, last June the government earmarked special funds for nuclear industry wage payments, and it looked as though the crisis was over. As the year wore on, however, it became obvious that the backlog was still not being cleared.

This month's resolution of the problem is, Yurkin says, partly thanks to union lobbying of the International Atomic Energy Agency, of the International Labour Organisation and of the World Association of Nuclear Operators. Pressure from Ukraine's international donors also helped.

But above all, he believes, the successful outcome is due to international trade union solidarity. He praises the pressure placed on the Ukrainian government by the ICEM and many of its affiliates. Also of great value were the ICEM's information campaigns via the media and the Internet, Yurkin says.

"Only by joint effort," he insists, "can trade unions defend their members' rights and interests and exert a real influence on the authorities and employers."

The non-payment of wages is still a major problem for other Ukrainian workers, notably the miners. It is also causing widespread poverty in some other countries of the region, including Russia.