Air Traffic Controllers - The First in the Line

At about 5.00 pm on Thursday 17th September a rather seedy man in a tatty blue suit entered the office of the national committee of the Federation of Air Traffic Controllers and served a notice on the President and Vice President of the union to attend a committee of enquiry at the Ministry of Internal Affairs to explain possible charges of economic sabotage during the Air Traffic Controllers strike on 15 August 1992. The police messenger was made to wait as the union leaders discussed the notice, passed it around, and ignored him. Eventually he went away after being told that it was unacceptable. Nobody knew what 'criminal process 81667' was or whether `warm clothes' might be needed.

The day before, Wednesday 16th September, at 1.00 pm police investigators arrived at the office and took scores of documents from the office. This included the union constitution, letters referring to disagreements with the tariff agreement that was the subject of dispute in August, the tariff agreement itself, telegrams relating to the strike, and reports on meetings of the strike. All the documents were numbered and listed on four pages. They obtained copies of the telegrams from the telegraph office. The investigation is being carried out by a senior investigator and three assistants.

While collecting the documents the police investigator allowed no outside contact. They grilled the secretary of the union, who with the treasurer, are the only full-time persons in the union. She was asked about the social background of the leadership, the establishment of the union, the finances, who decides wages of the staff, who is full-time, and `does the treasurer go to the bank alone'? This took two hours.

Economic sabotage refers to the strike as a deliberate attempt to block the movement of traffic, which affects the economy. The legal papers name the `leaders' of the union.

The union was established as an association of official union on the 1 November 1988 and as an independent union of the USSR in October 1990. The initators were a small group of people in Moscow and one from the Ukraine who knew each other and wanted to get the Communist Party off their back.

The controllers were pressured during the strike. Controllers stood beside supervisors or the military who had been drafted in to do the job, advising them on safety. This was particularly harrowing since in some airports public prosecutors, police, and other air personnel stood behind the air traffic controllers.

Two leaders in St Petersburg were arrested during the strike. They were held in the military police department for three hours.

One of the images frequently referred to by the air traffic controllers is that of chained controllers during the 1981 American air trafic controllers. They now worry about a similar fate.

The strike was declared illegal on the 14th August by the Moscow Court. Although an appeal is being made against this, the government has decided to stretch this to its limits. The union said the police were not acting within the law when they took the documents but as a union they had no choice.

After the strike the goverment said there would be no victimisation. Obviously, this was an empty statement.

There has been some victimisation already. Two traffic controllers have been sacked at one airport for dangerous work practices. Elsewhere government orders to punish strikers have been ignored. In one airport the leader of the air division was ordered to prevent the impleentation of the tariff agreement, but he refused to compl. One of the union leaders has now been given a finalwarning, as part of the build-up of pressure against the uion. There is also talk that there are crime invesigations at all airports.

Althogh rumoured that a shift of air traffic controllers at Puovo airport had been sacked, the administration stopped them working and sent them to the medical centre because they were stressed.

It would appear that the government has decided to move against the independent unions. If they succeed in their attack on the air traffic controllers, then other independent unions, such as the Independent Miners' Union, will be next in line.

Why is the government doing this? After all the air traffic controllers and the miners defended the White House during the coup. As a result of air traffic controller information, the government knew about the military movements of the coup leaders. The problem for the government is that paradoxically the independent unions, particularly the air traffic controllers, might begin to break the anarchy of wage levels, by pursuing the wage interests of a specific occupational group. It would seem that the government is relying on the official unions, reformed of course, to provide the mainstay of the government's attempt to provide the basis for a reconsolidation of the political and economic order. There is no room in this for independent occupationally based unions.

This is a union which negotiates directly with the government, in this instance the Vice-President, Rutskoi and Minsters of Labour, Transport

One of the problems that the union still has to deal with is the effect of the misinformation spread by the government during the strike. Vice-President Rutskoi claimed that air traffic controllers were mainly concerned with wages whereas their first claim was for the government to implement a previous agreement to establish a state committee to organise air traffic control. Then they asked for the implementation of the tariff agreement, including the payment of 15,000r a month rather than the 70,000r claimed by Rutskoi. In fact Rutskoi held up a wage slip at an orchestrated press conference the day before the strike claiming that it showed that controllers earned nearly 40,000r a month and they want even more. What he never said was that the slip covered two and half months back pay.

In many ways the controllers thought the strike a success. Negotiations continued with the Ministry of labour after the strike. It has been agreed that the military and civilian air traffic controllers will be placed under the authority of a state committee rather than continuing as separate bodies, with the civilian staff under the Ministry of Air Transport.

Other independent unions, including the miners, pilots and railway drivers have issued declarations of support, as has the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers, and the Canadian Air Controllers. They have also received advice from the sacked American air traffic controllers. What this might mean in substance is much less clear.