Co-author: Irina Olimpieva
The growing politicization of Russian labor unions in recent years reached a peak after the December 2011 parliamentary and March 2012 presidential elections, when both official and alternative labor unions began discussing the possibility of creating their own political parties. Despite their formal political neutrality, Russian labor unions have always exercised political influence, including through informal contacts with the country’s top leaders, lobbying the legislative and executive branches, and building alliances with political parties. Under current conditions, political levers provide an even more important mechanism for unions to advance labor interests than do social partnership institutions or mobilizing labor protests. […]
