Despite Plea by Gorbachev, Soviet Lawmakers Uphold Right to Strike

Soviet lawmakers on Tuesday rejected the government’s proposal to prohibit all strikes until 1991 and drafted a law that, for the first time in more than half a century, will clearly permit workers to strike for higher wages, better working conditions and resolution of grievances.

Despite a plea from President Mikhail S. Gorbachev for a complete prohibition on all work stoppages for the next 15 months to prevent his reforms from being undermined, the Supreme Soviet agreed only to authorize the government to take “urgent measures” to restore normal rail service and to ensure uninterrupted operations in other key sectors of the economy.

Debated heatedly through most of the day, the resolution does prohibit strikes in the Soviet Union’s transport system and in the fuel, power, metallurgical and chemical industries, but only pending the adoption of broader and probably more liberal labor legislation.

The measure, a compromise worked out through intensive discussions that ran through the night, was a major test of the independence of the Supreme Soviet--the new Parliament--and of its ability to shape the laws necessary for the reform effort.

Gorbachev, who had endorsed the stronger government proposal as necessary to protect perestroika , as his overall program of political, economic and social reforms is known, in the end declared himself satisfied.

Support for Perestroika

“This is a decision in support of perestroika ,” he told the deputies after the vote. Although it is a compromise, he said, the new powers would “help restore normal life” to the country, which is beset by mounting economic problems.

The resolution, approved 364 to 6, instructs all government bodies in the country to act immediately to halt the disruption of transport and the supply of food, fuel and other essential goods.

It authorizes the use of troops to take over the railways in the southern Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, where continuing ethnic unrest has led to an Azerbaijani blockade of Armenia. The resolution sets a Monday deadline for the takeover if the blockade is not ended.

But this fell far short of the sweeping emergency powers the government had sought on Monday to deal with the deepening economic crisis.

Attacking the government proposal as “an illegitimate power grab,” lawmakers from across the country and most of the political spectrum repeatedly criticized the request for emergency powers as “too sweeping, too broad” and not justified by present circumstances and setting dangerous precedents.

Constitutionality Doubted

Interior Minister Vadim V. Bakatin, emerging from the debate, acknowledged to reporters that the government proposal might in fact be unconstitutional as liberal critics had charged.

“We do not have a basis for deciding what is an ‘extraordinary situation,’ ” Bakatin said.

Deputies had criticized the government’s assumption of emergency powers in sectors of the economy and regions of the country that had not been touched by a year and a half of ethnic unrest or by the more recent strikes by coal miners and steelworkers.

They also pointed out that the new labor law, likely to be adopted later this month, would contradict the emergency resolution in fundamental ways, not only confusing the country on what the real law was but also undercutting the new legislative process.

The proposed law accepts labor disputes as part of the economic give-and-take of the “socialist market” and recognizes that in some cases they will lead to strikes.

Significant Political Change

This reflects not only popular sentiment in a nation where workers have long felt that they do not get their due, but also a significant political and philosophical change in a nation that has maintained that the workers were the “masters” of their enterprise and thus had no need to strike.

Throughout the debate Tuesday, the old and new political thinking contrasted sharply. Conservative deputies argued that strikes are a form of economic blackmail and in the country’s current crisis they only aggravate the situation.

Liberals, on the other hand, insisted that labor conflicts are inevitable, even under socialism, and that often a strike, though its cost might be high, is the only measure that can resolve the dispute.

Strikes were ruthlessly suppressed here starting in the 1930s, when the dictator Josef Stalin consolidated his hold on the Communist Party and the Soviet government. Over the last three years, however, workers have been able increasingly to use work stoppages to pursue their demands for better working conditions and higher pay.

As drafted, the new labor legislation would prohibit strikes for political reasons, including those demanding changes in the constitutional system or those that are directed against any of the ethnic groups that make up the Soviet Union. Other sections of the bill, which still faces a full floor debate, would ban strikes threatening human life or health.

‘Powerful Instruments’

“A strike is an economic measure,” Nikolai Gritsenko, chairman of the committee handling the bill, said, “and political disputes can be resolved through other methods, including rallies and demonstrations. . . . Strikes are powerful instruments in the hands of the working class, and everyone must be quite clear about when and how they should be used.”

Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov, talking with journalists during a break in the debate, said the government expects the new labor legislation to prohibit permanently strikes in key sectors of the economy and thus is willing to forgo an immediate and complete prohibition of all strikes.

The legislation will permit workers to strike, except in designated industries, under a two-week procedure that first requires mediation between them and their employers and then non-binding government arbitration.

Strikes will be specifically prohibited on the national railway system and on airlines, in communications, on city transport, in the power and defense industries and in governmental offices. In addition, the Supreme Soviet or the parliaments of the Soviet republics could vote to suspend a strike for up to two months.

The legislation first came up for debate in the Supreme Soviet in July, in the midst of a three-week series of strikes by coal miners. While those massive work stoppages, involving more than 150,000 miners, were directed primarily at getting the government to honor its commitments, they forced the Soviet leadership to reassess the role of labor in the economy and in the political system as a result of Gorbachev’s reforms.

During the debate Tuesday, the lawmakers approved five sections of the new law but sent the remaining 10 back to the originating committee to discuss a series of amendments introduced by deputies.