The House of Trade Unions hosted the 2nd congress of the DPR Federation of Trade Unions on February 20 in Donetsk. According to a correspondent of the DPR Official Website, 237 delegates representing 22 trade unions listened to a report on the work the Federation of Trade Unions has done for five years and outlined priority areas of activity for this year. In total, they considered about two dozen items on the agenda, including the election of Chair of the Trade Unions Federation and Vice Chairs.

“Trade unions play a very important role in the public life of any society and in state-building. I am very pleased that today the People’s Council and the trade union establishment of the Republic cooperate very closely. The People’s Council has members from trade unions and believe me, they show decent results in their job and make a positive contribution to our common cause,” Chairman of the DPR People’s Council Vladimir Bidyovka sated. He awarded several workers of the trade union movement with certificates of honor and acknowledgement from the People’s Council.

In his report, Chairman of the DPR Trade Unions Federation Maxim Parshin said that the Federation today unites 22 industry-specific trade unions, with about 2.5 thousand primary trade union organizations. “The total number of trade union members in the Republic is almost 300 thousand people,” he said.

“Since its founding, the DPR Federation of Trade Unions and its affiliates have achieved certain positive results. The Federation is primarily focused on protecting the socio-economic interests of workers, ensuring wage growth, facilitating effective public employment and law-making,” Maxim Parshin told.

He particularly noted the involvement of trade unions in legislative work, the creation of trade union legislation in the Republic.

“Taking into account the proposals of all industry-specific trade unions, we elaborated the draft Law On DPR Trade Unions, which was adopted by the People’s Council in July 2015,” he said.

Between 2016 and 2019, trade unions have submitted over 2,000 proposals for People’s Council specialized committees’ consideration to form a new or amend the existing labor legislation. Trade unions have brought forward over 800 proposals for the draft Labor Code of the DPR.

Guests from the Russian Federation and the LPR, representatives of trade union organizations, congratulated the colleagues on the anniversary.

“It is a great pleasure for me to meet my colleagues from the Donetsk People’s Republic. The first five years are very important and difficult. For this time, DPR trade unions have travelled a hard path. There comes an even harder period, when life will bring new problems. Trade union members demand their solution from you,” Chair of the Trade Unions Federation of Bryansk Region Olga Polyakova emphasized.

Chairman of the LPR Federation of Trade Unions Oleg Akimov noted the tremendous work done, that it is a merit of one big team, a merit of all trade union members.

During the 2nd congress of the DPR Trade Unions Federation, Maxim Parshin was reelected Chair by a unanimous decision of the delegates, Elena Mangush and Elena Molchanova were reelected Vice Chairs.