Page:NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SURVEY 18; CZECHOSLOVAKIA; THE SOCIETY CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110015-7.pdf/25

 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110015-7

expected to be somewhat more protective of workers' rights.

Czechoslovakia ranks high among the Communist countries in hygienic and safe working conditions. The working environment, however, ranges from modern well-equipped factories to obsolescent neglected plants, and the use of such safety devices such as hard hats, steel-tipped workshoes, and protective goggles is minuscule compared to practice in the United States. The inspection of facilities, equipment, and working conditions is the responsibility of the Czechoslovak Bureau of Labor Safety. This agency has reported that some 16,000 workers are absent daily due to work accidents, most of which it ascribes to carelessness and low morale. The Bureau has also documented an increasing number of self-inflicted injuries.

Virtually all of Czechoslovakia's approximately 6 million wage and salary workers are union members, belonging to one of the 18 federations and one nationwide military union which comprise the Revolutionary Trade Union Movement (ROH). In accordance with the federal structure of the country, the Czech and Slovak divisions have separate executive councils. The highest national administrative unit is the Central Council of Trade Unions (URO) whose members are chosen by delegates from each of the unions. The council provides secretariat services and is charged with implementing the policies determined at the ROH's annual congress.

Unions are organized on an industry basis rather than by craft or trade. Thus, there are separate unions for the chemical industry, health services, food, metallurgy, and so forth. There had been separate unions in the Czech Lands and Slovakia but these were merged during the reform era under Dubcek only to be returned to their original status in 1970.

Indifference and apathy characterize the rank and file of Czech trade unions today. From auspicious beginnings in the first half of the 20th century when they had earned an outstanding reputation as champions of the workers' rights, the unions were reduced to "schools of socialism" after the 1948 coup, their main goal being to insure worker support for the regime. In view of the supposed commonality of interests between the state and the workers, it was felt that the workers needed no one but the state to further their interests. The unions' goal was seen as encouraging the workers to fulfill the state's economic goals, mobilizing support for the regime, and implementing existing regulations concerning working conditions. In general, however, there has been a continuing dichotomy between the state's and trade unionists' view of the trade union role.

The unions played a major role in the Communist takeover of 1948, Communist Party members having acquired most of the important positions within the trade union movement by that time. During the 1950's, the unions became large and unwieldy and were frequently divided and merged as the government reorganized its ministries. Control was highly centralized, however, and all dues were turned over to the URO, which then distributed the money according to its own criteria.

During the 1960's reform movement, the unions sought to gain greater independence from their own central committees and from the URO and to reorient the trade union role. Elaborate plans were made to resolve a wide range of social problems affecting the workers and to implement guidelines for collective bargaining for higher wages and better working conditions. The latter was ideally to be achieved through the formation of "worker's councils" in each enterprise, in order to permit worker participation in management. By August 1968, when invasion by the Warsaw Pact forces put an end to further reform, councils had been formed in about one-fourth of the country's 700 enterprises. However, their role was never fully defined and in some cases their actual composition was still being debated. Some of the councils were inactive from the start, while the activities of others ranged from mere advisory bodies to actual economic planning. The fate of workers' councils was uncertain for several months after the August 1968 invasion. In November, Prime Minister Cernik announced his intention to proceed with the idea, but in a reversal of policy, new councils were prohibited in March 1969 and all were abolished in June 1970.

During the reform period, the unions also sought to return to the notion of the trade union as independent of any political party. They deposed the chairman of the URO and gave greater independence to local unions. The existing 12 unions were decentralized and reconstituted as 32 unions. A high percentage of local dues were retained within the union instead of being sent to the URO. The reform period was evidently too brief to allow the previously inactive unions time to gain a solid foothold under the new regulations. New leadership had barely been formed, so there was little opportunity to gear up for resistance to the Soviet invasion. The Soviets, however, were careful not to occupy the factories and face a direct confrontation with the workers.

In the postinvasion purge which lasted from late 1969 to late 1970, almost half of the local trade union officials were replaced by "politically reliable"

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110015-7