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![handle is hein.journals/cllpj12 and id is 143 raw text is: THE LEGAL STATUS OF STRIKES
IN THE U.S.S.R.
KEVIN BLOCKt
I. INTRODUCTION
A wave of labor unrest has swept over the Soviet Union. The coal
field strikes of Donbass and Kuzbass were the crest of the wave,' but
widespread strikes have also occurred in Estonia, the Caucasus, and Mol-
davia. Strike activity has declined in recent months,2 but there are signs
that new, large-scale pressures are building. Estimates of lost production
are already measured in the billions of rubles.'
Ironically, the Soviet Union had no law regulating strikes until Oc-
tober, 1989. Ideological constraints, among other factors, prevented the
leadership from enacting one. According to Marxism-Leninism, strikes
are a product of class conflict, theoretically unknown in the Soviet
Union. Thus, Soviet labor law regulated only individual employment
disputes (trudovye spory), leaving the regulation of collective labor
conflicts (trudovye konflikti) to the realm of bourgeois jurisprudence.4
The Donbass strike prompted the press to call for legislation. A bill
was quickly given a first reading by the Supreme Soviet and published in
the newspapers for public discussion. On October 9, 1989, the amended
bill was enacted.5 This article will examine several salient features of the
new law.
II. THE STRUCTURE OF THE LAW
The most outstanding feature of the new law is its recognition - for
the first time under Soviet rule - of the right to strike (articles 4, 5).
t B.A. 1981, Oberlin College; J.D. 1985, New York University Law School; cur-
rently post-graduate in Soviet law at Columbia University.
1. See Washington Post, July 12, 1990, at A25, col. 4.
2. This article went to press in December, 1990.
3. See Industrial Production Hit by Strikes, Ethnic Unrest, Reuter Bus. Rep., Sept. 13, 1990.
4. TRUDOVOE PRAVO: ENTSIKLOPEDICHESKII SLOVAR' [Labor Law: An Encyclopedic Dic-
tionary], 465-67 (1979).
5. 18 Ved. Verkh. Soy. RSFSR 473 (1989). See Appendix on page 146. All article references
in parentheses are to this law unless otherwise noted. This document is on file with the author.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/cllpj12&div=15&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)