Aeroflot trade unions claim they have been denied a seat on the board through vote rigging

Published: 7/2/1999

Valery Okulov, Director General of Aeroflot has come under some heavy flack from the company's trade union leaders who claim that the recent vote for board members had been rigged. According to Sergei Plevako, head of the union representing flight crew, the failure to elect a trade union representative to the board, was due to a rigged ballot and that he himself had committed more votes than he had received. According to the Moscow Times, Plevako and another union leader, Vladimir Bochkaryov, said they had received letters of attorney from shareholders assigning 300 million votes to the Plevako. He also said he was aware of at least 20 other corporate and individual shareholders that had also voted for him. Despite this fact according to the ballot, Plevako won only 220 million votes, coming 10th out of 16 candidates for the airline's nine-seat board. From Aeroflot management the view has been that the union's protests are premature until the votes are finally tallied in about 15 days time and Okulov himself dismissed the issue at a press conference during the week. The dispute has however, brought to the surface the long simmering debate about the management of Aeroflot by Okulov, which had somewhat disappeared over the last few months as the ranks were closed against Berezovsky. Plevako has again argued that the number of foreign planes leased by Aeroflot were more than required and that he has burdened the company unnecessarily with lease payments. He also said Russian planes such as the Il-96-300 were both cheaper to operate and more reliable than their Western competitors. Making the implicit suggestion again that someone has been 'induced' to acquire additional capacity. This public cat calling is a rerun of the arguments made by the Aeroflot old guard over the last three years. For the external observer however, it serves as yet another reminder that Berezovsky was not the only problem within Aeroflot.

Article ID: 648