Mestkom (local committee of a trade union organization) - a term adopted in the USSR to designate the lower divisions of trade union organizations that carry out their activities directly at enterprises, institutions and so on.
Organizational and social role
Local committees, as a rule, carried out grassroots organizational work, both in the field of direct protection of the interests and rights of their members, and in the distribution of social and material goods. In particular, the local committees were in charge of distributing trips to sanatoriums , rest homes and other vacation spots subsidized by the union line, distribution of food packages and so on.
The local committees were entrusted with the organization of voluntary surrender of funds to help the state and public organizations controlled by it (contributions to various foundations and societies, government loan bonds, and so on), and the organization of sports work.
The head of the local committee, as a rule, was part of the so-called “triangle”, which also consisted of the local administrative head and the head of the party organization. Joint decisions of the triangle could be taken mainly on issues of a disciplinary nature that affected administratively punishable, but nonetheless antisocial or immoral facts of employee behavior, such as absenteeism, drunkenness in the workplace, and so on, as well as on voluntary free labor ( Subbotniks , Sundays and so on).
Due to the fact that most of the workers were not party members, and some of these actions (for example, immoral behavior in the family) did not relate to production activities, the local committees were actually assigned the function of grass-roots judicial and administrative proceedings (in terms of organizing “friendly courts” ), however, their decisions were advisory and related to the field of moral condemnation, not punishment. Toward the end of the existence of the USSR, this function of local committees socially devalued and became the subject of mass ridicule.