Hi Fiona,
this is just a guess- perhaps it refers to losing "rank" or status in a broader sense; whilst there was no official system of ranking, collectives often ended up becoming hierarchical. The link below is interesting and talks about ranking and the grading of skills in collectives, though as this is all a stab in the dark where your film is concerned I don't know how much use it will be...
Chris

"The fact that the collective became the 'taken-for-granted generic form of Soviet life' meant that internal inequality was similarly accepted, for kollektivy engendered certain characteristic ranking practices (while simultaneously proclaiming a certain equality, at least that of all being members of the same group)...The communes of the 1920s had distributed income equally to all members but the kollektiv (...)introduced a rationale for grading of skills"

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Note added at 13 hrs (2006-08-30 08:44:27 GMT)
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This might also explain the woman's response to his comment, i.e.
"You'll lose your place/rank"
"Someone else will take it".