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It is the labor unions, as representatives of the collective interests of workers, who are obliged to influence labor legislation simply by virtue of their institutional purpose, and thus should be concerned that the working and social policies are not infringed upon by the interests of employees, which was interpreted by the court as evidence of political activity MPRA. Thus, the new practice of applying the law on foreign agents threatens to further reduce the already weak influence of Russian labor unions on the social and labor policy of the state.

Representatives of the union community recognize that at the time of the adoption of the law, they did not see in it the possibilities for accusing trade union organizations of engaging in political activities.

The charge of obtaining foreign funding is no less restrictive to the court. MPRA is a member of the international association of trade unions IndustriALL Global Union , which unites more than 50 million employees in 140 countries, including. and in the Russian Federation. In addition to the MPRA, the IndustriALL Global Union includes nine other all-Russian trade unions. In the context of globalization, the participation of trade unions in international associations becomes a necessary condition for their effectiveness. The universal exit of transnational corporations to the positions of major international employers objectively requires reciprocal cross-border cooperation on the part of trade unions.

International trade union associations regularly organize trainings for trade unionists from different countries, training modern methods of protecting the rights of employees. Participation in educational training organized by IndustriALL Global Union is just the imputed by the court of the MPRA as foreign financing.

Following this logic, all Russian trade unions participating in the international trade union movement, including the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR) , http://www.fnpr.ru/ should be recognized as foreign agents.

The liquidation of the MPRA sends an unambiguous signal to the entire trade union movement, forcing the trade unions to ponder once again whether it is worth developing cooperation with foreign counterparts. International isolation is unlikely to contribute to strengthening the Russian trade union movement. The most vulnerable at the same time are free trade unions, which, unlike official ones, do not have economic support in the form of property inherited from Soviet times. But active trade unions are also under attack. It is no accident that the first trade unions in the FNPR , which are also members of the IndustriALL Global Union, were the first to defend the MPRA.

Experts of the Center for Social and Labor Rights note that the decision of the St. Petersburg City Court grossly violates the constitutional right of citizens to unite and does not comply with the Russian law on trade unions. Equally important, it limits the search for new formats for trade union work, including the abandonment of the outdated sectoral principle, which is increasingly hampering the development of the Russian trade union movement, and, in the first place, of free trade unions.

The liquidation of the MPRA once again demonstrated the universality of the law on foreign agents, https://210fz.ru/zakon-ob-inostrannyx-agentax/, widely used to combat civilian associations uncontrolled by the Russian state. Due to the arbitrary interpretation of the terms "political activity" and "foreign financing", the law can be used against almost any non-profit organization, from a large charitable foundation, such as Dynasty , to a local hunting and fishing society.

If initially the main goal of the law on foreign agents was human rights organizations, now the most active trade unions have become targets of persecution.

Reference: history of creation and growth of the MPRA

The trade union of the MPRA is one of the "free" trade unions of Russia. These are trade union organizations that emerged in the early 1990s , as an alternative to the so-called "official" trade unions belonging to the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR), the heiress of the Soviet AUCCTU. Unlike official trade unions, which, for the most part, focus on the distribution of social benefits and "objective" mediation between workers and employers, often preferring the latter, free trade unions are focused on combating violations of workers' labor rights, and do not avoid, if necessary, go with an unscrupulous employer to a sharp open conflict.

Although FNPR absolutely dominates today in the trade-union space of Russia, covering about 95% of all unionized workers, free trade unions are clearly visible against its background precisely because of their high protest activity. The largest union of alternative trade unions is the Confederation of Labor of Russia ( KTR ), which includes the MPRA.

The MPRA was established in 2006 by employees of the Ford Motor Company and AvtoVAZ plants as the Interregional Trade Union of Automobile Industry Workers. Since the formation, largely due to his charismatic leader Alexei Etmanov , the union was distinguished by the ability to mobilize workers and organize successful protest actions.

It was at the Ford plant that the so-called "Italian strike" or " work by the rules " was first used, that is, a form of strike when the work is carried out with the strict implementation of all, even minor and all forgotten rules, and precisely within the framework of the prescribed obligations. This form of protest was then used more than once by Russian trade unions in other industries. And the most high-profile action of the new union was a 25-day strike at the Ford plant in 2007, which allowed it to raise wages by almost a third. It was this action that brought the all-Russian and international fame to the union.

In order to assess the complexity of the work of the MPRA it is necessary to know that the Russian labor legislation practically excludes the possibility of carrying out legal strikes .

Thanks to its activity, the union managed to achieve the conclusion of collective bargains beneficial for workers, a significant improvement in the conditions and organization of labor, including compensation for work in hazardous conditions at Ford, Volkswagen, Bentler Automotive and several others.

Since January 2014, union leaders have decided to expand their activities beyond the automotive industry. Having changed the name to the current Interregional Trade Union "Working Association", the MPRA has become an interregional and interbranch trade union hub (node) that supports young alternative trade unions at the time of their establishment as a result of workers' conflict with the employer. To unite workers in different industries, amendments were made to the charter, which were then regarded by the city court of St. Petersburg as inadequate to the status of the trade union organization, which was one of the reasons for the decision to liquidate the MPRA.