Soviet trade unions have neither entirely succeeded nor entirely failed in meeting their dual functions. Whether one discusses socialist competition or safety inspections, disputes commissions or health programs, an overall image of union performance is difficult to discern. Certainly there are glowing accounts by Soviet journalists of workers having managers fired; there are also harrowing accounts by Western journalists of managers having workers thrown in jail. If both images are correct – and many of the circumstances underlying such reports appear plausible – how can one make sense of them? What patterns, if any, are evident in union performance? Is it possible to predict when, where, and how a union official will meet his legal obligations? And what are the tensions within the present Soviet system of labor relations that might lead to future changes in union behavior?

The existence of tension within Soviet industrial life should not come as a surprise. Vera Dunham begins an examination of the worker in contemporary Soviet literature by observing: