Gorbachev Asks Ban on Soviet Strikes : Stormy Debate Greets Plan for Emergency Economic Measures

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev today called on the Soviet Legislature to impose a 15-month ban on strikes he says are wrecking the economy.

The official Tass press agency said Gorbachev spoke at the end of a stormy two-hour legislative debate on a proposal for emergency economic measures put forward by First Deputy Premier Lev Voronin.

Gorbachev said a ban on strikes is a “necessary measure . . . to protect democratization from anarchy and irresponsible management.”

Plans for future economic development are “under threat” because of the strikes, he said.

He urged legislators to discuss the strike ban overnight and be ready to vote on it Tuesday.

Voronin told the Legislature that the ailing Soviet economy lost 4 billion rubles ($6.15 billion) in July and August alone due to strikes, and supplies of fuel are so low the country might not be able to supply enough heat to see Soviet citizens through the winter.

A package of proposals for the next 15 months includes “a prohibition of conducting strikes during this period in all branches of the economy,” Tass said.

Penalties Not Described

Voronin did not spell out what penalties would apply to violators of the proposed strike ban.

The country’s coal fields were virtually paralyzed this summer by a wave of strikes which spread from the Siberian Kuzbass to other major coal-producing areas.

Workers in the outlying republics have gone on strike both to press demands for more autonomy from Moscow and, in the case of local Russian minorities, to protest alleged discrimination by other nationalities.

In Azerbaijan striking railway workers have imposed a virtual economic blockade on neighboring Armenia in the continuing dispute between the two republics over the Azerbaijani province of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The package of proposals also calls for imposing a “special form of administration” on railroads in Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan, with the ministries of railroads, defense and interior responsible for protecting the railroads and their workers.

The two republics have been engaged in bitter ethnic strife. Armenian activists say Azerbaijani railroad workers in the last two months have cut off the trains that bring 80% of the goods Armenia gets from other parts of the Soviet Union.

Food stores have been emptied of many basic goods and there is no fuel even for such vehicles as ambulances, the activists say.