LABOUR IN RUSSIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26198, 8 July 1946, Page 5

LABOUR IN RUSSIA

STRIKES STILL OCCURRING PLAYED DOWN BY PRESS WASHINGTON, (Rec. 11.15 p.m.) July C. The Secretary-Treasurer of the Congress of Industrial Organisations, Mr James Carey, who has just returned from Moscow, where he attended a meeting of the executive of the World Federation of Trade Unions, expressed the opinion that the Russian unions had not found their full functions, nor had the American unions. He added that although there was a limitation to the right to strike in Russia, strikes still took pla'e, but were not played up by the newspapers. The vice-president of the United Automobile Workers, Mr R. J. Thomas, said he was impressed with the equality of treatment of women and men in the Stalin car factory at Moscow. If a job required the lifting of a 1001 b object, a woman was expected to do it if she wished to receive the same wages as a man. The Stalin factory was turning out 165 woodenbodied trucks each eight hours’ shift, which was a good produ'tion rate, but not so good as in some large American plants.

The executive of the World Federation of Trades Unions decided to establish 15 international trade departments where unionists in various specialised lines would meet to exchange information.