Subordination through unification. Commentary by Info-Prim Neo

The classic rule says that the subordination comes through separation. “Divide and Rule” was the constant principle of the powerful. It seems that under the present conditions in Moldova, the subordination can also come through unification, the opposite of division. The public opinion in general and the press in particular failed to notice a last weekend event that would have made the headlines during days and weeks in a row in other countries and in other conditions. The trade union organisations merged into one on June 7. The two organisations – the Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova (CTUM) and the Confederation of Free Trade Unions “Solidaritatea” (Solidarity) fused into the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova with the aim of more efficiently solving the problems of the salary earners and ensuring the economic and social protection of the trade unionists, as they declared. In such a way, from June 8 the new trade union organisation has a membership of about 720,000 people. The fact that the appearance of such a numerous organisation remained without attention is surprising, but explicable. It is unexpected because the emergence of a new player of such a scope on the social-political landscape of the country, including at the height of an election campaign with high stakes, should not have been overlooked. On the other hand, this is a normal social reaction because the trade unions in Moldova have not imposed themselves during Moldova’s independence. Given the lack of a real promoter of the trade union rights of the employees, Moldova witnesses such unordinary phenomena when the political organisations or NGOs with much lower potential assume the role of trade union leaders, as, for instance, in the case of patent holders. The government also took such a role when it stopped and reactivated the law on salary grades. It is true that during the past years certain processes in the trade union sector created the illusion that the respective sector began to purify and fortify itself. At the start of the decade, the General Federation of Trade Unions of Moldova split up and a number of branch trade unions set up the Confederation “Solidaritatea” that reached a much larger membership than the Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova, which was regarded as the successor of the Federation. “Solidaritatea” said it split away from the Federation as a result of some dubious financial operations carried out by the trade union leaders of that time, while the CTUM said that the new organisation was established with the aim of dividing the trade union movement in Moldova and supporting the Party of the Communists that came to power. Through numerous public statements, the CTUM denounced the intimidation and pressure exerted by the state authorities on the trade unionists for the purpose of making them join the Confederation of Free Trade Unions “Solidaritatea”. They also levelled criticisms at the relevant international organisations. In particular, a year ago the management of the CTUM said that it provided the Committee on Freedom of Association of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) with information about the violation of the trade union rights in Moldova by the central and local bodies. “We have evidence of the violation of the rights of the CTUM and of the state interference in the internal affairs of the trade unions,” said then the CTUM president Petru Chiriac, who participated in the International Labour Conference in Geneva as part of a Moldovan delegation. According to him, the proofs had been accepted by the Committee, which included the violation of trade union rights in Moldova in the agenda of an extended meeting of November 2006. Before the respective meeting, officials of the ILO were to examine the evidence and identify ways of solving the problems highlighted by the CTUM. Meanwhile, different trade union organisations and personalities made similar statements for many times. In the interim, the two national organisations could not reach a compromise and one of them did not take part in the protest action organised by the trade unions in February 2007, the only significant event of the period. The next event had a festive character. It was dedicated to the May 1 public holiday and was staged in front of the building housing the two trade union organisations. In the wake, there appeared the information that the CTUM and “Solidaritatea” will merge into one. In the meantime, we have not been informed about the fate of the complaints regarding the state interference in the affairs of the trade unions addressed to Geneva. Neither before nor after the unification congress did the trade union leaders bother to explain to the trade unionists and the society how real the declarations about the subordination of the trade union movement to the interests of the ruling party were. We can understand that there were no such problems or the given problems have been solved, including by unification. Is this a game of the trade union leaders or a scenario of the interested political forces where the trade union leaders play the role of marionettes? Judging by the events that occurred in the trade union sector and by other similar processes as a result of which the power created the second writers’ union, the second journalists’ union, their own nongovernmental organisations in different areas and other obedient organisations, the observers are inclined to think that the unification of the trade union organisations is rather the consequence and final expression of the division and subordination processes. It seems that the trade unions have not yet got rid of the quality of “school of communism” that was assigned to them in the past. In the meantime, we learned that a new delegation of the Republic of Moldova, between June 8 and 10, participated in the International Labour Conference in Geneva (Switzerland), which is unofficially called the International Labour Parliament…