Helsinki (26.08.2022 - Heikki Jokinen) Sture Fjäder, Akava President, is to stand as a candidate for the Finnish parliament in the next elections in April 2023. For this reason, he stepped down as President on 22 August and Akava will get a temporary replacement until congress meets on 14 November.
Akava, the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff, is one of the three trade union confederations with 615,000 members. Akava Director Pekka Piispanen will now take over the daily running of the office and be in charge of the handling of Akava’s interests.
Akava board meetings are to be chaired alternately by three Vice Presidents Salla Luomanmäki, Katarina Murto and Mikko Salo. Vice President Jari Jokinen is a candidate in the upcoming Akava presidency and will not chair any board meetings.
Fjäder has been selected as a candidate for Parliament for the National Coalition Party.The NCP is the traditional, major centre-right party in Finland and doing well in the polls right now.
In June, Fjäder already announced that he would step down from the presidency prematurely this Autumn after the November congress. His term was due to end in Spring 2024.
The June announcement came about after it was revealed there had been a secret deal back in September 2020 with major Akava union leaders that he would not sit out the full term of his mandate as President.
In his younger years, Fjäder (born 1958) was active in politics in the Swedish Peoples' Party, which is a smaller centre-right party focusing in particular on defending the rights of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. Swedish is also Fjäder’s mother tongue.
In Hangö, his hometown in the 1980's, Fjäder sat for several years on the city council representing the Swedish Peoples' Party and was a candidate for that party in parliament elections in 1987. However, he has been a member of the National Coalition Party for the past 20 years.
According to his work contract, Sture Fjäder will continue to work at Akava until the end of the year. Though he is still formally Akava President until the congress, he will no longer comment on any issues on behalf of Akava.
Read more:
Akava President Sture Fjäder to step down prematurely (21.06.2022)
Sture Fjäder re-elected as Akava President (26.08.2020)