Ban on Political Walkouts Wins Initial Soviet Vote

As strikes spread across the Soviet Union, the national legislature Tuesday gave initial approval to a bill that would ban the political walkouts that are pushing the country further toward economic ruin.

The action appeared unlikely to stem the seven-week-old coal miners’ strike, which lawmakers had tried unsuccessfully to avert, nor is it likely to prevent other work stoppages that have been called in several major cities.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev warned last week that the country was heading toward economic collapse and proposed a moratorium on strikes, rallies and demonstrations as part of a package of anti-crisis measures. But 300,000 miners from the western Ukraine to the Pacific have defied that appeal.

“When Gorbachev declares a moratorium . . . we continue to strike,” said Nikolai Delobragin, chairman of a strike committee at a Ukrainian mine. “This shows that even if there is a law banning strikes, we will not go back to work.”

The miners, whose top demand is Gorbachev’s resignation, were joined in their strike Tuesday by tens of thousands of workers from 22 enterprises in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, said Sergei Melnik, deputy chairman of the Kiev strike committee. Most of the city’s bus drivers participated, as did tens of thousands of workers from several large factories, some of which serve the military-industrial complex, the government newspaper Izvestia reported.

In the Ukrainian coal city of Donetsk, thousands of factory workers showed their solidarity with the miners by staying off the job for a second straight day, said Alexander V. Pivnev, a member of the Donetsk strike committee.

The striking workers were furious at Gorbachev for traveling to Japan during the crisis. “In such a situation, the leader of the county should never leave,” Pivnev said. “He should bring order at home and then let him travel as much as he wants.”

At a closed-door session in the Kremlin on Tuesday, legislators disagreed about the impact that the ban on political strikes would have on the country.

First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly K. Doguzhiev argued that during this time of acute economic troubles, “strikes can only speed up the closure of plants and factories and increase unemployment,” the independent news agency Interfax reported. But it added that other lawmakers warned that a ban on political strikes would be a step backwards in the “process of developing democratization.”

The second and final reading of the bill is expected next week, when the Supreme Soviet, the national legislature, takes up the package of anti-crisis measures, the official news agency Tass reported.

In March, the Soviet economy lost 1,169,000 worker-days as a result of strikes in 542 enterprises, Tass said. And it added that the miners’ strike is likely to cost the economy 5 million tons of sheet metal, which will affect not only metallurgy but most other industries. “In short,” Tass commented, “If strikes continue in response to some calls, we shall face a complete collapse.”