14.12.2006 // Press center of RTU NPIW

On Dec 12 the Central Committee of the Russian Trade Union of Nuclear Power Industry Workers held its 10th plenary session

The key objective of the meeting was to sum up the results of the electoral campaign in the Trade Union.

The elections of the trade union bodies and their leaders are held once in five years. The campaign is completed with a congress that elects the chairman of the Trade Union and the members of the Central Committee.

The chairman of the branch trade union I. Fomichev said that the well-organized conduct of the electoral campaign is one of the ways to bring trade unions together so they can jointly protect the rights and interests of employees, can enhance the role of trade unions at enterprises, in organizations, in the regions, their influence on the executive and legislative authorities and local governments. At the same time, the campaign is the best way for the trade union bodies and their leaders to raise their authority and to gain confidence of employees.

The current reporting and elections in the member organizations started in mid 2006 and have passed in almost 80 trade unions covering over 324,000 members. Hence, almost 50% of primary trade union organizations-members to the Trade Union have already held reporting-electoral conferences.

Fomichev congratulated the elected trade union leaders and wished them success in their hard but useful work.

Over 30 trade unions will hold elections by the end of this year. The remaining organizations will hold them in Jan-Feb 2007.

The final results of the conferences will be summed up at the 11th plenary session of the Central Committee of the Trade Union on Mar 15. The trade unions failing to conduct conferences by Mar 1 will be deprived of the right to delegate their representatives to the 3rd congress of the Trade Union to be held in Apr 2007 and to have members in the new Central Committee.

The participants in the meeting also discussed the social problems of nuclear power engineers and internal trade union problems. Particularly, they talked about additional vacations for the liquidators of the Chenobyl accident, about protection of the pension rights of the people who have worked under extremely dangerous and harmful conditions, about low wages of the sector employees, about personnel problems, about the role of the scientific complex in the nuclear power sector reforms, about social-cultural facilities, about trade union solidarity and discipline, about the necessity of strong partnership in the sphere.

The head of the personnel department of Rosatom V. Limonayev answered the questions of the trade union leaders. He agreed that low salary is a serious problem. «We can’t stand rivalry in the matter. Today, Rosatom is a personnel donor for other branches,» he said.