Some 5, 000 trade union representatives from Russia's largest union will hold an extraordinary meeting in Moscow Thursday to plan the next move in a marathon battle with the government.


The union has already called for protests across the Russian Federation on Saturday, and at Thursday's meeting will discuss ways to pressure the government to increase minimum wages and to stabilize prices.


But according to Igor Titov, a spokesman for the union, the delegates will be equally concerned to find ways to keep control of the Federation's empire, which is estimated to be worth "billions" of dollars.


The federation still controls Russia's social security fund, as a holdover from


the Soviet system when the union was effectively a branch of government.


It also administers about 50, 000 pieces of property in Russia, including hotels, think tanks, day care centers, enterprises, 78 newspapers and 60 information centers, as well as property around the world.


But since 1990 the union has claimed to be independent, and the government has already managed to reclaim the country's pension fund. In September a breakaway faction of the union took some hotels, sanitariums and other property.


The Russian Association for Social Tourism now claims to control a group of about 70 organizations, including hotels, bus companies and enterprises estimated to be worth 1. 1 billion rubles, said Grigory Ostrobrod, deputy chairman of the association.


The old federation originally maintained that all of the property still belonged to them. But when the dispute went to court, the federation withdrew its claim at the last moment.


The diplomat said he was not convinced that the transfer was anything more than a paper ruse and believed that the federation was still in control.


The federation already lost its claim to be the only legitimate vehicle representing Russian workers in 1990, when the clamor for a share of the union's privileges started growing.


It now claims to have 60 million members, although many of them are inactive, having signed up before 1990.


In August, President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree to wrest control of the social security fund back to the government. The Russian parliament successfully stalled that decision.