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MongoliaLabor Organizations
The Mongolian Trade Unions originated in 1927. In 1989 it
included 600,000 members, grouped into four categories of trade
unions: industry and construction; agricultural workers;
transportation, communications, trade, and services; and culture
and enlightenment. Trade union organizations ran production and
training conferences, and they participated in collective
agreements between the managements of enterprises and trade union
committees. They also articulated issues of concern to the work
force, supervised social insurance programs, and oversaw the
observance of labor legislation. These and other powers were
vested in law, particularly in the National Labor Law
(see Labor Force
, ch. 3). Schools run by labor organizations focused on
improving the qualifications and vocational education of factory
and office workers.
The highest body in the organizational structure of the labor
unions was the Congress of the Mongolian Trade Unions, which
elected a central council and an auditing commission. In 1989 the
Central Council of the Mongolian Trade Unions was chaired by BatOchiryn Lubsantseren, also a member of the party Central
Committee and the Presidium of the People's Great Hural. A
presidium--composed of the chairman of the Central Council of the
Mongolian Trade Unions, a deputy, and two secretaries--and a
four-person secretariat provided the leadership for the
subordinate trade union councils and committees. About 3,000
committees operated at the primary factory level. The composition
of the trade unions in the late 1980s was 50 percent industrial
workers, 30 percent office and professional workers, and 20
percent agricultural workers. In a population that was 58 percent
working class, and in a work force that was 95 percent unionized
by 1984, trade unions played an important role. How well they
performed was another question. At a party Central Committee
plenary session in December 1988, the Central Council of the
Mongolian Trade Unions was criticized for not adequately
protecting workers' interests. The Mongolian Trade Unions was
affiliated with the Soviet-sponsored World Federation of Trade
Unions.
Data as of June 1989
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