Over 80 Russian trade unionists, the top leadership of nine central organizations, came to the ILO Workshop on collective bargaining, privatization and tripartism, held in Moscow on April 20-21. Discussions focused on the practical issues of representing the interests of Russian workers in the new reality, where change is the only constant.

The Minister of labour of the Russian Federation, Gennady G. Meli-kyan, spoke at the opening, and Igor E. Klochkov, chairman of FITUR, welcomed the participants to their building. The Workshop was chaired by John Svenningsen, Director of Workers' Bureau of ILO. Hartmut Tofaute explained the trade unions' experience with privatization in the Eastern Lander of Germany. ILO-CEET was represented by Pekka O. Aro and Bob Kyloh. The ILO Moscow Branch Office, and its Director Evgeny Davydov played a key role.

The Workshop concluded, i.a. that joint activities should aim at supporting the unions' capacity to represent the interests of their members at enterprises and other work places.

Training - both workers' education and vocational training - is the main area of activity where the ILO can help Russian trade unions.

Concrete activities to be pursued by the ILO and Russian trade unions include: Workers' education manuals to be published in Russian; a tripartite seminar on collective bargaining; tripartite connections and exchange of information and experience with similar institutions in other countries, particularly within Central and Eastern Europe; a trade union seminar on wages, prices and productivity and advisory services to trade union education institutions. POA.