‘We won in all the court cases involving Metro Cash & Carry, but the story hasn’t come to an end yet,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Federation of Trade Unions told UrBC.

The German chain store actually clashed with the local trade unions after Metro’s Yekaterinburg stores management tried to prevent the organization of a corporate trade union there. Another problem apparently consisted in violation of the workers’ right to a compensation for the harmful working conditions.

‘The chairman of Yekaterinburg Trade Networks trade union Alexander Brusnitsin met Metro Vice President in Berlin last summer; they considered setting up an All-Russian trade union under the auspices of Sverdlovsk Region Federation of Trade Unions with headquarters in Yekaterinburg. The decision has not been made yet, but we can already speak of some positive dynamic. In fact, we are currently involved in a few more lawsuits initiated by Metro employees, including those working in the company’s Tyumen branch. The workers based in Tyumen asked to join our trade union in Yekaterinburg when they found out about our activities,’ the Federation reports.