Wanting punch-up: Yeltsin BORIS Yeltsin's first major clash with organised working class resistance seems likely to begin on December 1 with an all-out strike by air traffic controllers.
57 out of 130 regional air traffic control centres have voted to join the dispute, which is decisive for the tuture survival of the union: the control. second only to the Russian miners in is level of organisation.
Though relatively well-paid by Russian standards. controllers wages have been hit by Yeltsin's 2,000 per cent inflation, and they are demanding party with their counterparts in the west Another grievance is the victimisation of three leaders of the union's short-lived strike at 20 centres on August 15. Negotators have refused o back down from their demand that legal proceedings against those who struck in Augus On November 20 their threatened indefinite strike was declared ilogai by Russia's procurator general.
Yeltsin's government, taking a loaf out of Ronald Reagan's and recalling his clash with PATCO, is determined lo show its credentials as a union-buster to the western bankers.
It has said it will use members of the armed forces to break the strike; but these lack the technical skills to operate a complex avilan service. if they take over, it wit not just be Yoltsin who is fying into troubie.