Evening star., 1946-09-02
Report Says Soviet WorkersLos
Free Unions Under State Plan

e lVOINSISIOSI
Ter State Plan
spearhead of the coming revolution.
In the first flush Of revolutionary
enthusiasm it was thought that the
worker, through the Soviets. would
also manage, direct and control the
factories.
Soviet unions are not organized
to conduct strikes While there does
not appear to be any specific legis-
lation prohibiting strikes, strikes
never occur in state industries, at
least not since the strike Of the
Kronstadt sailors way back in 1921.
One writer puts it cryptically that
strikes, according to the unwritten
and unpublished Soviet law, are for
bidden.'
Wage rates are fixed by economic
planning agencies on the basis of
the principles established by the
Government. 1t is true that trade
union officials play a part in this
machinery; but since their dominant
outlook must be to protect the enter
prise in carrying out it's assigned
tasks. their influence on wages is
conceded by all impartial students
to be negligible.
No Wage Differential.
There does not seem to be any
national minimum wage in the So
Wet Union. The lowest wage rate
in different industries is determined
by the industrial management, which
has the problem Of keeping within
the payroll allowances fixed by
the plans
While no attempt is made to
compare workers incomes in the
U. S. S. r. and the u S. A., it is
not disputed anywhere that the
average level of wages and earnings
and the standard of living is very
much higher in the United States.
This is so principally and finally
because production and output per
worker is higher in the United
States. For instance, Soviet iron
workers produced Sc Kilograms of
pig iron per capita in 1887, while
in the United States. 292 Kilograms
per capita were produced. In the
same year, Soviet coal miners mined
757 Kilograms per capita compared
with 3,429 in the United States.
The inequalities resulting from
better earnings are not the only in
equalities in the Soviet Union among
different classes of workers. A,
Stakhanovite and others who have
not quite made that grade are priv
ileged workers. They not only earn
more, but they are given special
facilities for work, special tools.
special restaurants and the right
above others to purchase needed in
dustrial goods and clothing. In 1882
William H. Chamberlin. the Amer
ican journalist who represented the
Christian Science Monitor in the
U. s. S. r., noted seven different
dining rooms in Magnitogorsk, the
big iron and steel center in the Urals
They ranged in quality from the
plentiful, If heavy, food served to
high plant officials and imported
American engineers to the subhuman
diet allotted to the unfortunate
kulaks and political prisoners, of
whom tens of thousands were en-
ployed on forced labor jobs. In 1914
this caste system in dining rooms
was reported as existing in Soviet
motor factory visited by w. L. White
Next to the stimulation OF pro-
ductivity, the conduct of welfare
activities Gncluding the administra-
ton of the social-security benefits
Is the most important and time
consuming function of Soviet trade
unions Much is made of the pro-
vision OF rest homes and summerine
places for workers But a selection
must be made, since obviously there
is no provision at these resorts for
Is to ~ million workers, not to speak
OF their families. Citrine estimated
that 3 per cent of the industrial
workers had the privileges of a rest
home in 1882.
Labor legislation in the Soviet
Union Is made up of government
DEGREES, generally later approved by
the Supreme Soviet in its short ses-
sions and always unanimously. These
DEGREES are, by hypothesis, the en-
bodiment Of the will of the people.
The DEGREES issued between 1898 and
l94l would be considered harsh. re-
strictive, and undemocratic by Amer
lean standards. They would Ger
tainly be regarded as antilabor by
union spokesmen in the United
States because they restricted the
freedom Of movement of workers,
imposed severe penalties for absen-
teeism, heightened hours, reduced
maternity benefits and made other
insurance benefits dependent upon
length OF employment on the same
job.
Undoubtedly the most trouble
some of all the Soviet institutions to
present and discuss without passion
is the institution of forced labor. Al
though the government publishes
no statistics regarding the camps in
in11