CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Gorbach, Denys |
|---|---|
| Title | Underground Waterlines: Explaining Political Quiescence of Ukrainian Labour Unions |
| Summary | “Labour weakness” has become a ubiquitous cliché in sociological and anthropological texts dealing with Central and Eastern Europe. However, this blanket formula can conceal more than it reveals, since the concrete conditions may vary wildly among countries of this region. Unlike many neighbouring countries, Ukraine has huge trade union federations, successors to the Soviet-era organisations, boasting many millions of members and possessing ample financial and other resources. These are matched by the widespread demand for union radicalism in the popular rhetoric. Nevertheless, unions fail to live up to these expectations, avoiding conflicts on every scale. Workers, on their part, are widely dissatisfied with the “impotent” unions, despising them but still paying membership fees. This is especially true for large enterprises controlling important bottlenecks which would be crucial in the case of a large-scale labour conflict. In order to explore factors conditioning the political quietude of Ukrainian labour, I analyse ethnographic data collected at two such enterprises: Kyiv metro and the privatised electricity supplier Kyivenergo. Employing the reflexive approach of the extended case method, historical institutionalist toolkit and Gramscian theoretical framework, I focus on a recent labour conflict in the metro, unpacking the various contexts condensed in it. My analysis suggests that the hegemonic configuration developed in the early 1990s was based on labour hoarding, distribution of non-wage resources, and patronage networks featuring foreman as the nodal figure. It prevented open industrial conflicts, especially channelled through the union. However, I also show that today this hegemonic setting is eroding simultaneously with depletion of Soviet-era resources on which it was founded. |
| Supervisor | Kalb, Donatius Pius; Li, Ju |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/gorbach_denys.pdf |
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