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of the Union could be continued in the South. In 2 or 3 months the organs of the Union were re-established. In the South a Bureau, composed of four members of the Central Committee is active since October 1919.
The Central Committee sent a considerable number of workers to Siberia and to the Ural after these had been freed from Koltchak. The work of organisation in Siberia and in the Ural district presented immense difficulties because the means of transport were in a very bad condition. But, on the whole, we succeeded in establishing and organising the work of the organs of the Union and in establishing their connection with the centre. All the members of the Union were registered, but it was impossible to utilise those data owing to the sudden rush of events. It was only in Sept. 1919 that the Union could begin the solution of these problems.
At first the Union adopted the policy of equalising the wages. The first wage rates established by the Union in 1918 embraced 10 categories from the unskilled labourer to the engineer: the second, in September 1918, embraced 11 categories: the proportion between the maximum and minimum was as 2:1. This can be explained by the fact that the Union attached the greatest importance to physical labour. But afterwards the Union to give up its original scheme. In February there were already 28 categories: in July—35 and the proportion between the minimum and maximum was 1:5. But even these wage rates proved unsatisfactory: to many expert engineers the Central Committee had to appoint high personal salaries. But, on the whole the wages of the members of the Union were less than those of the average trained worker: because the piece-work rate system and the premium had not yet been introduced.
