On 23 October 1992, the 4th Plenum of the Federation of Trade Unions was held from which Mukashev was elected as a chairman. He participated in drafting law on trade unions which was passed in 1993. This gave every Kazakhstani citizen protection for their social and labor rights and interests. Under his leadership, the trade union contested its candidates for the 1994 Kazakh legislative election with an election slogan "A decent life for a working man!". After the parliamentary elections of 1999 and 2004, the QRKF grew in numbers and strengthened qualitatively. It lobbied the Embek MP group, where under Mukashev proposed and drafted bills such as the Labor Code, bills on state benefits to families with children, on amendments and additions to the law on pensions, on state targeted social assistance, on social protection of citizens affected by nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk Test Site, employment of the population, on culture. On 20 November 2007, he became a member of the Council of the Public Chamber under the Mazhilis. However, during his tenure, the QRKF maintained its close relations with the Kazakh government. The membership of QRKF decreased significantly from 7 million in 1990 to just 2 million in 2012. The QRKF attempted to become a member of the International Trade Union Confederation which was never approved and its bid received criticism from figures such as the president of Labor Confederation of Russia Boris Kravchenko who criticized the labor union for not supporting the striking oil workers in 2011 which led to Zhanaozen massacre that resulted in the deaths of 14 oil workers. On 28 January 2013, Mukashev resigned from his post as the chairman and was succeeded by Äbilgazy Qusaiynov.