Helsinki (16.12.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) Antti Palola will continue as the President of STTK, the Finnish Confederation of Professionals. He has been the President since 2013.
Before STTK Antti Palola (62) was 2005 - 2013 President of the Federation of Salaried Employees Pardia which represented salaried employees working mostly in the state and public sector. In 2019, Pardia merged with the Trade Union Pro.
By profession Palola is a sea captain. In his earlier career prior to Pardia he was working among other things on ships, in the Finnish Ship's Officers' Union and as a teacher in naval schools.
In his speech to the STTK Council Palola said that confrontation between employers and employees has been on the increase recently.
"Some kind of confrontation is natural, as both parties have their own goals. But, instead of looking for mutual understanding that has brought stability and predictability to Finnish society, we are proceeding today in an atmosphere of growing mistrust."
To highlight this Palola mentions the tripartite cooperation which has been halted, though the government of PM Marin views it positively. "Employers have not genuinely sought to make agreements, and this erodes the possibilities for labour market organisations to renew working life."
In general, according to Palola, this collective agreement round has been going rather smoothly. Changes in collective bargaining seem to be minor.
"However, judging by the path the employers have chosen, there looms the desire to wreck the system of negotiations and agreements and instead move it to company level, where it may end up as negotiations being conducted between the employer and an individual employee without unions."
STTK is one of the three Finnish trade union confederations, with 13 member unions having 500,000 members in total.
Read more:
Antti Palola on the way to becoming STTK President (11.09.2013)
Trade unions Pro and Pardia plan a merger (15.06.2018)