THE UNIONS OF ARTISAN PRODUCER COOPERATIVES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A006300100003-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 30, 2008
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 25, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL -INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title
18, U.S.C. Secs. 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
S-E-C-R-E-T
SUBJECT The Unions of Artisan DATE DISTR. 25 March 1955
Producer Cooperatives
DATE OF INFO.
PLACE ACQUIRED
DATE ACQUIRED
NO. OF PAGES 4
REQUIREMENT NO. RD
1. The Unions of Artisan Producer Cooperatives are subordinate to the UCECOM
(the Central Union of Artisans' Cooperatives). Their task is to guide,
coordinate, check, and supervise all artisan producer cooperatives within
a specific region. In Bucharest, there is a union for the city of Bucharest
and one for the region of Bucharest. The artisans are grouped according to
their specialty and in every regional capital there is a union specializing
in one of the following fields:
a. The Leather Goods and Shoes Union includes all cooperatives that make
and repair shoes. They call themselves the Cooperative of Progressive
Shoemakers*
be The Metals and Chemicals Union includes all cooperatives that repair
or make spare parts for automobiles, pumps, plumbing, air-conditioning,
etc. They also make dyes, glassware, plastics, repair tires, etc,
co The Textiles and Ready-to-Wear Garments Union includes cooperatives
which make garments, underwear, silk or wool textiles, etc. These
cooperatives also raise silkworms@
de The Services Union includes cooperatives engaged in bookbinding,
trucking, barber and beauty shops, painting, rat extermination, typing,
technical drawing, tea and coffee shops, candy stores, translating, etc.
e. The Woodworking and Furniture Union includes cooperatives engaged in
carpentering, furniture making, etce
2. The regional unions are composed of a chairman, production counselor,
cultural counselor, organization counselor, chief accountant, chief
planner, labor and wage norms, chief of investments, cadre and training
chief, and a supplies chief. The chairman, and his counselors, are
supposed to be elected by the members of the cooperatives, but in reality
(Note; Washington distribution indicated by "X"; Field distribution by
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they are appointed by the UCECOM and are usually unsuited for their jobs.
They have the power to appoint and dismiss personnel at will and can make
personnel changes for political reasons. They assure that personnel follow
Party orders dealing with demonstrations, cultural activities, plan fulfill-
ment, etc. The chief counselors also approve rewards for overfulfiliment
of plans. They command a salary of about 1,800 lei per month.
3. The production counselor gets 1,300 lei per month and the actual work of
establishing production standards, the production plans of the cooperatives,
and the allocations of raw materials is done by technical assistants.
The production counselor is in charge of political and cultural meetings,
Russian language courses, propaganda films, sports events, etc.
I. The organization counselor and his assistants handle matters concerning
the mergers of cooperatives and the creation of new ones. He keeps a roster
of members. Cooperatives are graded, as far as wages are concerned, as first,
second or third, according to the number of members. Meetings with the
management of cooperatives are scheduled by him.
5. The chief accountant, his assistant accountants, and three or four auditors,
are about the only employees who cannot concern themselves merely with
political activity, for under the communist system accounting is so complicated
that it demands a real expert. A union includes from 25 to 40 cooperatives
and it is, therefore, a fairly large organization. The accounting office
checks all the quarterly accounts of the cooperatives and approves them
provisionally, for the Union chairman can always order a further audit.
Since May 1954, the audit of the accounts for the year must be made by
31 January of the next year unless irregularities are discovered. The
accounting office, whose staff is paid 500 to 900 lei per month, collects
the accounts of the cooperatives, draws up the annual balance sheet and
sends it to the UCECOM, which in turn works out a consolidated balance
sheet for all unions and forwards it to the Ministry of Finance.
6. The chief planner, who has the rank of service chief, has the job of
sub-allocating among the various cooperatives the production plan received
from the UCECOM and of collecting the reports on plan fulfillment and
channeling them back. Planners are well paid, getting 1,300 to 1,b00 lei
per month in the union, and 700 to 1,200 lei per month in the cooperatives.
However, since some of the planners have taken only a short one to three
months' course they frequently lack the necessary training. They must,
however, be either Party members or entirely reliable by Party standards.
The plan fulfillment reports are sent in sealed envelopes, marked "Secret",
and must always be kept in a locked safe. Since the figures are known
by the entire staff of the accounting office, this seems to be an unnecessary
precaution, It is said that the planners arbitrarily set their figures which
never agree with reality.
The chief of the Labor and Wages (Norms) Union circulates the instructions
received from UCECOM regarding wages and norms for piecework rates and
checks on their application. He distributes the wage funds for workers and
for employees. The total is allotted by months and may never be exceeded.
He also issues instructions concerning the calculation and revision of
norms. and ther practical application. It goes without saying that changes
are never in favor of the artisans.
8. The chief of investments is responsible for the distribution of the investment
fund among the cooperatives. The amounts of these funds usually range between
5,000 to 10,000 lei per year. Their handling is excessively complicated by
red tape. They are intended to permit the acquisition of inexpensive tools,
and not for expensive repairs, etc.
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9. The chief of personnel and training, assisted by two to three employees
who work in the field, supervises the upper echelons of the cooperatives
and the lower echelons of the union. He is invariably a trusted Party
member, usually a former worker. Many are young men who have distinguished
themselves in the UTM (Communist Youth Organizations In the personnel
division there is, of course, a never-ending struggle for survival in which
victory depends even more on influence in higher quarters than on ideological
purity.
10. The head of the training branch opens, when needed, new vocational schools
attached to cooperatives and supervises all of them. He must pass on all
applications for admittance, excluding those with an unhealthy social
background.
11. The chief of the supplies service is paid 1,200 to 1,400 lei per month and
is assisted by one of two technicians. Their job is to get the materials
approved by the UCECOM from the factories or the UCECOM Central Warehouse.
The job is not an easy one as both raw materials and transportation facilities
are in short supply. Even scrap is scarce as it is now in great demand
by State industrial plants.
S-E-C-R-E-T
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UNIONS OF ARTISAN PRODUCER. COOPERATIVES
CHAIRMAN
PRODUCTION CULTURAL ORGANIIATIDN
COUNSELOR COUNSELOR COUNSELOR
CHIEF
PLANNER
TECHNICAL.
EXPERTS
TECKNIW4L
CXPERTS
FIELD
INSPECTORS
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FIELD
INSPECTORS
EMPLOYEES
FIELD
INSPECTOR5
PERSONNEL
AND TRRINI-6
PERSONNEL
INVESTIGATION
EMPLOYEES
CHIEF
ACCOUNTANT
Eli PLOYEES
TRAINING AND
SCHOOLS
LABoR AND
WA&E SERVICE
IN V 6STMENTS
SERvi
AUDITORS
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SUPPLI ES
SERVICE
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