In this video, released on the channel in January 2019, Alexei Navalny announces the launch of an important new project — “Navalny’s Trade Union.” The initiative is aimed at fighting for decent pay for millions of Russian public-sector workers: teachers, doctors, and scientists, whom the state cynically cheats while claiming to have successfully carried out Putin’s “May decrees” (a set of presidential policy directives issued in 2012). Alexei proposes a concrete plan: use the calculator website created by the team to find out your legally mandated salary and, with the help of ACF lawyers, force officials to stop stealing and pay what is owed.
Text version
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Hi, this is Navalny, and I’m announcing our
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major new anti-corruption project.
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Please watch until the end and
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take part. I represent the Anti-Corruption Foundation
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and we usually fight corruption
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from the top down—that is, we show
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you some crook, explain why he’s a crook, and
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urge you to spread the information,
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fight corrupt officials,
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vote against them, and so on. But
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corruption can also be fought from the bottom up.
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To do that, we first need to answer
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the question: what is the main harm corruption
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does to our country? The answer is simple:
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poverty. Russia is
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a rich country with a poor population, and
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to be even more specific, in
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Russia wages are very low, and
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corruption is one of the main reasons for that.
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A Russian oligarch
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is so rich because for years
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workers have been underpaid.
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His employees earn 10 times less
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than at a similar factory abroad, and he
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profits from that.
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The oligarch makes fantastic sums of money. Part of that
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money he hands over to officials as bribes, and
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no one touches him. He doesn’t even pay
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any taxes. That’s why I am
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absolutely convinced
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that Russia now badly needs
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the emergence of a huge, mass grassroots
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movement for higher wages.
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Not that everyone should be paid
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a million tomorrow, but a reasonable increase to the level
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that people receive for the same
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work in countries comparable in
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their level of development to Russia—for example, in
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Eastern Europe. It sounds nice, but
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how do we do it? If you and I lived in
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a normal country, and not in one where
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the same person has been in power for 20 years,
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destroying everything around him just to
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stay in his place, then the answer would be
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simple: trade unions. If working people
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feel they are being underpaid,
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they join together in a union, put forward
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their demands, and negotiate with
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their employer. If they can’t reach an agreement,
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they go on strike, and then they do reach one.
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That is, a normal process takes place
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through which working people
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defend their rights. But just yesterday
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there was news that the union
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of teachers in California
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ended a six-day strike because
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it had reached agreement on new working conditions:
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their pay was raised by 6 percent and
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class sizes in schools were reduced. But in
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Russia, almost all trade unions
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are completely under the authorities’ control. They
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support United Russia, they
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support oligarchs—good Lord, they
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even supported raising the retirement
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age. In other words, they’re just officials
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calling themselves trade unions. You yourselves
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know that perfectly well if you’ve ever
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dealt with them.
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So our task is to create a kind of
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spontaneous trade union movement
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with one simple goal. It’s not
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political—we’re not going to say, love
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Navalny or don’t love Putin, love
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whoever you want. Just demand higher
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wages.
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Demand what you are entitled to. I know
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that everything I’ve said sounds
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right, but
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abstract. The words are nice enough, but what do we do?
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We have a completely concrete plan, and
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we are starting our campaign with it
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today. For now, this plan concerns 6
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million people—representatives of
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certain professions—and then we will
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expand. So, in Russia there are 6
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million people whose salary levels
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were personally guaranteed by Putin when
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he ran for election in 2012. He
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signed the so-called May Decrees
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regulating wages.
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In them, he tied the level of their average
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salary to the average salary in the region.
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It’s simple: look, every region
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has its own official average salary,
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which is calculated by Rosstat (Russia’s federal statistics agency), and the average
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salary of a doctor in that region now
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is not just pulled out of thin air or made up,
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but is set at 200 percent of that average. And
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the average salary of a teacher, for example, should
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be no less than 100 percent of
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the regional average. Before the last
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election in 2018, Putin reaffirmed
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all of this and even signed new May
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decrees. And the most remarkable thing is that officials
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all across the country report that yes, yes, yes,
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they are carrying out Putin’s May Decrees and
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paying public-sector workers exactly the salaries
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required by the formula.
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For example, did you know that the salary
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of a nurse in Moscow should be no less than
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82,000 rubles a month (about US$900 at recent exchange rates)? If
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you tell that to a nurse or paramedic
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you know, they’ll laugh
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in your face. But on paper, that is
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exactly how things stand, and the mayor of Moscow proudly declares
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that these are the salaries of Moscow
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nurses, and that wage growth is real.
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Why, just recently,
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he said there had been an 8 percent increase—the biggest rise in
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recent years. In the first nine months of 2018,
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the salaries of doctors in Moscow rose by more
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than a third, and no less than 70,000 rubles a month
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is supposedly earned by rank-and-file metropolitan
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medical workers.
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Somewhere in the paperwork it says that
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every nurse in Moscow receives 82,000
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rubles a month, and the money for this has been allocated from the
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budget. The only question is: where did it go?
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An even more absurd example.
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A university lecturer in Moscow, under
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Putin's decree,
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is supposed to earn an average of 165,000
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rubles a month, and Moscow City Hall once again reports
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that yes, they do earn that much. But that is
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obviously a lie. The average
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doctor in St. Petersburg is supposed to earn no less than
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118,000 rubles — that is,
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200 percent of 59,000 rubles, which
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according to Rosstat (Russia's federal statistics agency), is the average
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salary in St. Petersburg. But do they actually earn that? Well,
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if you know a doctor in
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St. Petersburg, ask them. You'll be lucky if they
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just tap their temple like you're crazy.
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Otherwise, they might even want to start a fight.
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Some people don't seem to like this argument.
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You often hear: well, of course,
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that's how averages work — one person gets a million,
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and 100 people get 15,000 each, and on
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average everyone gets 25,000.
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But that's not just faulty logic — it's
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deception. The whole point of the May Decrees
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was for everyone to receive a salary close to the average.
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Yes, some people may earn much more
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if they work more, but no one should
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be earning drastically less. And the budget includes
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funds so that all preschool teachers
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in the Novosibirsk Region
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for example, receive around thirty-
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four and a half thousand rubles, and they
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are supposed
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to get that by law. And if they are not,
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then prosecutors should already be running around, and
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the Kremlin should be summoning governors for a dressing-down, and
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so on and so forth. I could spend an hour listing
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these examples for every city and
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every region.
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[music]
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There are three biggest problems. First,
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people are being deceived and
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underpaid.
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Second, people themselves have no idea
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what salary they are entitled to and
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guaranteed. And third, people are not
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ready to stand up for their rights because
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they're afraid, because it's unclear what to do.
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Okay, so I want to demand
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the salary I'm legally entitled to — where
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do I start? Who will even listen to me? Where
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do I find a lawyer who can give good advice?
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How do I contact a union? I have no idea.
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If you have no support behind you, the
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only person who will hear you is your
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director — and they'll just fire you.
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That is exactly why, to solve these three problems,
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we have assembled an army of lawyers, brought in our
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fairly powerful media resources, and
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are launching a section on our website — a kind of
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grassroots independent trade union.
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Now listen carefully: doctors,
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nurses, medical staff, teachers,
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preschool educators, staff in supplementary education,
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social workers, employees of
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cultural institutions, researchers,
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university lecturers, teachers in the
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system of primary and secondary
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vocational education —
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your salaries are regulated by the May
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Decrees, and in every region
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there is a threshold below which you
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cannot be paid. If your salary
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differs significantly from that benchmark,
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then you are being deceived and robbed, and
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we will defend you. Your first step is
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to go to this website,
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enter your profession, enter your region,
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and find out what your
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salary should be.
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If it is lower, then leave us
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your information, and we will begin legal
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work in your interests.
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We will file complaints that your salary does not
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match Putin's promises and
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the May Decrees.
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You can file the complaint yourself, which
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we will draft, and if you do not want to do it yourself, we
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will file it for you. If you are afraid, for
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some reason, and do not want
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your details at all
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to appear anywhere, then still
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leave the information, and your complaint will be handled
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by a friendly trade union
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supporting our campaign. There are such unions in
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Russia, and there are many of them — but there are honest unions among them.
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That allied trade union will
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demand that your institution be inspected as a
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whole. In addition to legal work, we will
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also use media, PR, political,
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informational — whatever it takes — to go after
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the heads of institutions and officials
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who underpay salaries. It is important
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to understand that politically and legally,
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officials cannot admit that they are not
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paying you what you are owed and are not carrying out
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Putin's May Decrees, because these
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May Decrees are a kind of sacred cow
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of the regime. They are discussed endlessly at every
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meeting, all governors claim that
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they are implementing them, and Putin himself has repeated a million times
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that for failure to implement the May
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Decrees and for underpaying public-sector workers,
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everyone will bear personal
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political responsibility. This is, by the way,
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the main indicator of the quality
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of a governor's work for the Kremlin:
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whether they are implementing the May Decrees and paying
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the salaries that are required. Were the funds
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allocated? They were.
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Was there no cheating? No, of course not. The funds reached the regions,
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they were transferred through the system to them,
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but they did not reach the medical workers.
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That is why no governor and no mayor
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has any interest in doctors or
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teachers in their territory stirring up
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a fuss. And right now there is a system
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of universal deception: in the regions, people are being massively
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underpaid — teachers, nurses, and others.
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Researchers know all this, but
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regional bosses brazenly lie and
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report that everything is fine. The Kremlin and
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Putin, of course, know that all this
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reporting is fake, but they accept it with
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a smile because everyone stays silent. But
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what is happening with them, and with
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these decrees overall, is roughly this: 93 to 94
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percent
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of the stated goals have supposedly been met. Everyone in this
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chain—public-sector employees, their bosses, the mayor, and
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the governor, and the Kremlin—
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all pretend that everything is fine and salaries
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are rising, and they will keep doing so until
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someone breaks this vicious circle,
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stops staying silent, and finally
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tells it like it is. Only then
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will the authorities start moving and begin paying
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what they are supposed to. That is exactly why
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our people's trade union is needed.
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Next, the first thing those in power will say is:
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"So you've gotten involved with this Navalny (Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition politician). He
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is stirring things up. He is pursuing political
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goals. He is promoting himself. He is scoring points off
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public-sector workers and their problems. We need to distinguish
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those who genuinely want to do something and
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really strengthen the state from
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those who are trying to use this as
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a tool in their own
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political struggle, for self-promotion." And you
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should answer them—be clever: "This
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Navalny is very bad, he is terrible, and
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so come on, dear mayor, dear governor,
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we won't let him get publicity. He is a very bad
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person—I have never seen anyone like him.
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Raise our salaries to the proper
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level, and then we will love you and not
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love that awful Navalny.
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As soon as he comes here shouting about
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low wages, and boom—by then everyone here already has
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high salaries,
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then that Navalny will fall flat on his face."
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Then some suspicious citizen immediately
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asks me: "But why do you need this, Alexei?
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Why are you doing this? You've launched a website, there will be
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some huge amount of legal work,
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so what's in it for you, and what goals are you
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pursuing?" And I will admit quite
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frankly: I am a politician. I need people's support.
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I work for them. You will see:
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Navalny and his team are working for us. Everyone
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lies to us, everyone steals from us, but this man
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is trying to protect us—as best he can,
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and that is what he is doing. As a result of this
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campaign, some people will support me, some will not.
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But I know this is the right
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thing to do, and together with my
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team I am ready to work on it for as
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long as necessary. Besides, I
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truly believe—and this is not just my
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belief, but an economic fact—that
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there will be no growth in Russia,
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no development at all, until people
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start receiving decent pay for
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their work. This project is possible only
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through cooperation between you and me. As I
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already said, there are 6 million people
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whose salaries are regulated by the May
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decrees. I need to make sure that
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each of them watches this video, that
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each of them goes to my website. And how
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can I do that? I can do it only with
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your help. Do you know any doctors
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or researchers?
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Send them a link and persuade them
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to take part in our campaign. After
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all, the person loses nothing. If their salary is raised—
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excellent. In the worst case,
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nothing will change. If you are a student or
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a school student, send a link to your teacher.
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Most likely, they will be
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grateful to you at least for
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caring about the size of their salary. Do your children
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go to kindergarten? Great.
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Send it to the caregivers, explain to them
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and the aides that the impoverished existence
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they are leading is the consequence
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of not being given what they are
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owed. This is the main point of our campaign: we
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are demanding what is already guaranteed by
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law, what money has already been allocated for, and what
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they have already reported as supposedly being carried out.
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93 to 94 percent
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of the stated goals have been fulfilled. Well then,
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if they have reported it, then let them actually do it.
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So, in conclusion, let me emphasize once again:
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to take part in this campaign, you do not need
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to be in the opposition. I am not interested in
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your political views.
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If you support me later, fine. If you do not
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support me, that is not a problem either. The main thing is that
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this works for you. The sole purpose
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of the project is to increase your salary. The
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more money you receive, the less
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will go to corrupt officials.
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[music]