A spokesman for the Union of Mining and Metallurgical Workers, which has about 2. 15 million members, said the union withdrew because it was fed up with the federation's "dictatorship".
Valentin Goshinsky said Thursday that the federation's policies ran contrary to the reform program of President Boris Yeltsin.
The federation, which claims to have 60 million members, was an arm of the government until 1990 and still controls the country's social security fund. It also owns about 50, 000 enterprises.
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