Russian psychics want to register own trade union - paper

Wizards and psychics accustomed to working in the world beyond want to conjure up a trade union in Russia to manage their earthly employment worries, the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted by AFP reported Friday.

The report, quoting unnamed sources in the Russian parliament, said a group of "psychics, witches and other specialists in contact with supernatural forces" wanted formal status with the main independent trade union federation, AFP said.

Russia's Federation of Independent Trade Unions would not comment on the reported move, the paper said.

But Vladimir Yegorov, head of Russia's folk medicine association, voiced skepticism that Russia would see an official wizards' union anytime soon.

"Trade unions are necessary where there are employers. But here we have no plants, no faith-healer factories. We have only individual entrepreneurs," Yegorov told the daily.

The report added that Russia's "extrasensory" practitioners - psychics, faith-healers, witches, magicians and so on - had reported an increase in their workload in connection with the global economic crisis.