Changing Industrial Relations in the Russian Car Industry

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Abstract:

The contribution examines the evolution of industrial relations in the Russian car industry on the institutional/regulatory and on the company level focusing on foreign car manufacturers in Russia. The institutional framework of industrial relations in Russia has been characterized by the coexistence of a “social partnership” rhetoric and formal recognition of the freedom of association on the one hand, and by efforts of the state to hamper the development of trade unions and to limit collective action on the other hand. The constellation of industrial relation actors is changing as the traditional post-communist trade unions are challenged by new merging union organizations. In this situation, the European, American and Asian car manufacturers arrive in the Russian market and introduce their home country models of industrial relations as an additional element to the already dynamic and contradictory setting.