Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

Students and practitioners of the dispute resolution system in American industrial relations have paid scant attention to such systems prevailing in the Soviet-bloc countries of Eastern Europe. It is taken for granted that no industrial democracy, which is a precondition to an impartial resolution of disputes, could exist in an economy dominated by state-owned enterprises.

The establishment of organizational and procedural arrangements for the peaceful resolution of industrial disputes is based on the assumption that such disputes arise with varying frequency in industrial relations and tbat it is in the interest of the parties to utilize institutional arrangements in order to avoid disruption of production. According to tbe prevailing ideology in the Sovietbloc countries, however, a conflict between the management of a state enterprise and a trade union is inconceivable in a socialist country, as such conflict would be only possible in a capitalist society engaged in a class war. A Western student of Soviet employee relations observed two decades ago tbat "it is assumed in the Soviet Union that there is a harmony of interests in industry, that workers know that they are 'the owners of industry'."