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Since the end of 2009, three members of the LLC "Cisco Systems" have been in a fight with their leadership, defending their legitimate right to decent work. Cisco Systems is the Russian branch of Cisco Systems, Inc. (USA), a major international producer of telecommunications equipment.



SPOILED PHONE



When we attempted to contact the chairman of the primary trade union for Cisco Systems, the receptionist politely but firmly informed us that Andrey Khabarov was absent in the workplace and that his mobile phone was not responding. The correspondent of Solidarity immediately dialed his cell phone number and got through without any difficulties. This was certainly a strange problem for the office of one of the world's largest companies specializing in high technology and telecommunications.



But Andrey Khabarov really was absent in the workplace. In fact, he had just come out of the building of Zamoskovoretskiy inter-district court. Currently, there are seven petitions challenging the validity of numerous reprimands and fines imposed upon him and his fellows by the management of Cisco Systems.



“We are familiar with current affairs and have decided to reject the first suit,” Khabarov told Solidarity. “We will prepare an appeal to a higher court.”



The correspondent of Solidarity traced the chronology of confrontation over the last eighteen months, delving into the very essence of the problem. Since the end of 2009, three members of the LLC Cisco Systems have been in a fight with their leadership, defending their legitimate right to decent work. Cisco Systems is the Russian branch of Cisco Systems, Inc. (USA), a major international manufacturer of telecommunications equipment.



MATTER OF PRINCIPLE



It all started in December 2009, when an officer of CISCO, Alexei Romanov, "strongly recommended" that Khabarov provide unjustified business discounts for one of the trades.



The scheme was likely to work as follows: several officials would agree amongst themselves to provide additional discounts on selected transactions. Their justifications to senior management may have varied: budget cuts for the client, price dumping by competitors, etc. Naturally, these rationales would not have always been current. Moreover, such clients would not have even been aware that they had received "discounts". As a result of such transactions, officers could receive multi-million ruble additions to their salaries, said Khabarov.



After Khabarov refused to comply with this requirement, a campaign was started to oust the "undesirable" people from the company. In March 2010, three months after the described events, Romanov was appointed to be Khabarov’s supervisor. At the time, Khabarov was responsible for sales to telecom operators.



At the same time, the employer began a systematic attempt to undermine the work of sales managers. Andrey Khabarov was accused of drunkenness and for fighting at the workplace. In April of that year, Khabarov received his first unjustified reprimand. These events foreshadowed his imminent dismissal.



Sales managers Aidar Garipov and Vyacheslav Revichev actively supported Khabarov and called attention to the leadership’s unwillingness to admit to violations of the labor rights of employees. As a result, Garipov and Revichev also fell under pressure from the company. So in May, "a group of rebels" established a primary trade union in LLC "Cisco Systems" in order to protect worker rights at a more formal level.



NO HOLDS BARRED



“Frankly, we discussed the establishment of trade unions back in 2008,” says Khabarov. “But by the end of 2009 there had been a change in the company's leadership, and employees had been promised great opportunities and significant improvements in their working lives. We decided to wait to see the positive changes occur throughout the company. But these changes never came.”



Here's what's interesting. Cisco Systems, Ltd, which was led by Paul Betsis in 2009, is one of the key partners of the Russian authorities and the Fund "Skolkovo" (Innovation Center) in the field of modernization. According to some reports, the Russian office of Cisco Systems could be involved in building the infrastructure for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, among other things. In any case, the American telecommunications giant has already become the official supplier of network infrastructure for the Games in London in 2012.



Clearly, the global plans of Cisco Systems in Russia are quite serious. According to Andrey Khabarov, however, the employer began an "economic blockade" of the three trade union activists in July of last year.



“Our job duties include the sales of equipment and services,” explained Khabarov. “All customer companies are divided according the scope of their activities, and each sales manager engages them in their respective sectors.” Managers made a small salary, but two-thirds of revenues went to the wages of workers who made the sales. This system fairly considered the contribution of the employee to the company's prosperity. In the hands of unscrupulous company's leaders, however, this system became a weapon against union activists.



According to the chairperson of the primary union of Cisco Systems, the employer blocked the “rebels” from working with key customers in the summer of last year, leaving them with scanty numbers of customer orders or even non-existent clients. Thus, it effectively deprived activists of about two-thirds of earnings, putting them and their families in financial distress.



The company took an active part in the fight against the tiny union, labeling them as being loyal to the management staff. According to our interlocutor, the company was organized by a so-called "anti trade union."



“We have identified several active agents who insist that any unpopular changes in the workplace are associated with the activities of the union. One example of this is the need to account for funds spent by the company in accordance with existing laws,” says Khabarov. “Thus, they stir up the situation at work, explaining that the union was created in order to degrade - and I stress, worsen - the situation of workers.”



In late January of this year, an open letter was circulated throughout Cisco Systems, Ltd. in which some members expressed support for the management of the company. This letter included the sentiment that, among other things, ". . . almost nobody else in our office is interested in joining this union, because the union activities do not meet the aspirations of the vast majority of office employees. We believe that these people pursue only their own interests, and therefore we do not intend to support their actions".



The correspondent of Solidarity contacted Alexander Palladin, the spokesperson of the Russian Office Cisco Systems, to ask what he thought of the trade union activists. Palladin replied that:



“This issue [is] an internal affair of the company. I have nothing to add to the text of an open letter in which the employees of the LLC Cisco Systems made their position clear in relation to trade union activities. I don't think it reasonable that two employees have the right to speak on behalf of the entire team, which includes more than three hundred non-unionised individuals. Which point of view do you think is worth more to listen to – the views of two people or the views of more than three hundred people?”



“In our primary union there are already 17 people,” Andrey Khabarov told Solidarity. “They do not advertise themselves, but there are some among them who were forced to sign the open letter.”



The head of the primary union indicated that there is much tension within the team. People are afraid of losing their jobs, and therefore are unwilling to openly support a primary union.



THERE ARE REASONS



Alexander Palladin did not err when he claimed that there were only two employees in the trade union. On March 17, 2011, the deputy chairman of the primary trade union company of Cisco Systems, Aydar Garipov, was dismissed. Interestingly, just three days earlier (March 14), this primary union officially joined the All-Russian Trade Union of Communication Workers. (CWU-ru). On the 16th, the Presidium of CWU-ru adopted the decision to reject CEO Paul Betsis’ consent of Gapirov’s dismissal. And yet the very next day, Gapirov was fired.



“We support the establishment of trade unions in transnational companies,” Anatoly Nazeykin, President of CWU-ru, said to Solidarity, “because it is the trade union leaders in the workplaces who should taking prompt action to remedy violations of Russian labor laws, in order to keep companies from infringing on the rights of workers. The situation in the Moscow office of Cisco Systems has been, in this sense, exemplary. Currently, we are taking care of the primary trade union, and we will try to help it to build the capacity for future development. I would like to emphasize that its creation has been made in full accordance with Russian law, so the management of company will have to reckon with it.”



And the reckoning has already begun. The violations of labor rights by the management of LLC Cisco Systems have been reported to UNI Global Union, an international trade union headquartered in Switzerland. Personnel files of Andrey Khabarov, Aydar Garipov and Vyacheslav Revichev have also been sent to UNI, so that the organisation may decide upon possible responses to the violations.



In addition, trade union activists sent a collective appeal to the State Labor Inspectorate of Moscow concerning what they consider to be the illegal firing of Aydar Garipov. On behalf of the Prosecutor's Office of the Central Administrative District of Moscow, the district prosecutor's office of Zamoskvoretsky will conduct the investigation.



On June 29, 2011 in Zamoskvoretsky inter-district court, a hearing is scheduled for a civil suit against the former manager of LLC Cisco Systems concerning Aydar Garipov’s dismissal from office. CWU-ru will be there as a third party.



The newspaper Solidarity will very carefully monitor the situation of the primary trade-union company of Cisco Systems.