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Helsinki (12.10.2017 - Heikki Jokinen) Negotiations for the paper industry collective agreement have come to a standstill after the employers' organisation the Finnish Forest Industries Federation offered a zero pay rise to the Paper Workers' Union.

"Zero point something would have surprised us, but pure zero left us in total dismay", said the Union Chairperson Petri Vanhala in an interview with Lännen Media.

The Paper Workers' Union is the first industrial union to negotiate on a pay rise this Autumn. Their collective agreement expired at the end of September.

The Union have not published their exact demands for a pay rise. But it is definitely not zero as the paper industry is doing much better economically now than in the past few years.

JHL (06.10.2017 - Heikki Jokinen) Negotiations to renew most of the JHL collective agreements will begin in November and December. Almost all of JHL's around 60 collective agreements are set to expire at the end of January 2018.

JHL President Päivi Niemi-Laine says that the goal of the Union in this round of negotiations is to get pay rises that can be counted in euro, not as a percentage of current wages.

The logic being that if everyone were to get the same percentage by way of a pay rise the gap between those earning less and those earning far more will only end up getting wider.

JHL seeks to bridge the gender gap in salaries and improve the position of those earning less.

Helsinki (04.10.2017 - Heikki Jokinen) Members of Tehy - The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals in Finland have voted in the new Union Council. In November it will elect a new President of the Union.

The 83 member strong Tehy Union Council is elected by direct member ballot for a four year period. There were six lists of candidates, based mainly around political groups, but there were also non-aligned candidates on the lists.

The Social Democratic list Yhdessä eteenpäin (Forward together) won a notable victory this time around. In the previous Union Council which had 63 members it had 17 seats, but in this latest election it managed to win 30 seats in the new 83 member Council. So in real terms it has succeeded in increasing its share of seats on the Union Council from 27 per cent to 36 per cent.

Helsinki (27.09.2017 - Heikki Jokinen) Exactly 20 years ago, in August 1997, the Finnish journalist Juhani Artto started up a new news service Trade Union News from Finland. Ever since then it has been publishing hundreds of news items in English, with a particular focus on the Finnish trade union movement and working life issues.

The service is currently being supported by all three Finnish trade union confederations, nine of their member unions and one union which is not a member of any confederation.

Their financial support has enabled the Trade Union News from Finland to continue publishing for all of these 20 years.

These confederations and unions often include our news features on their own web pages, offer links to this news, share it with their international umbrella organisations or mail it to their international contacts.

JHL (21.09.2017 - Heikki Jokinen) Most of JHL’s collective agreements are set to expire in January 2018. The Union is now preparing for the next round of collective bargaining by seeking members' opinions and discussing goals for forthcoming negotiations.

JHL, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors has some 60 collective agreements which cover various sectors and companies.

The Union will hold ten regional meetings for its members in October. This will afford members the opportunity to voice their views and opinions on what they see as important in the upcoming round of collective bargaining.

Helsinki (18.09.2017 - Heikki Jokinen). A new round of collective bargaining has begun. Several major collective agreements are due for renewal this Autumn. The question concerning the level of pay rise is still open.

The first one to negotiate is the Paper Workers' Union. Their collective agreement expires at the end of September. The Union announced on 12 September that all the original demands of both sides are all still on the negotiation table.

The Union want to see changes in rules with respect to working hours, protection against dismissal and transition assistance. The employers are interested in increasing flexibility regarding working hours and the use of hired labour.

As the pay rise is always the last thing to be negotiated, no figures have been published so far as to what this might be.

Helsinki (21.08.2017 - Heikki Jokinen) The position of those with zero-hours contract must be improved during the next round of collective bargaining, insists the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK.

This year there will be no national labour market pact, the unions will negotiate individually their own collective agreements. A large number of collective agreements will be negotiated this autumn.

However, SAK have prepared qualitative goals for the collective agreements. SAK published these in August. The goals are common for all the SAK member unions, but the unions are free to adopt various methods to work towards reaching them.

"The public sector has already done its part in the wake of massive cuts", the unions say in their joint statement. "An unfair cut in the holiday bonus was forced on the public sector as part of the national labour pact."

The unions are standing firm and and say the incomes of public sector employees cannot be frozen. Strengthening domestic demand will strengthen employment.

- All labour market parties have voiced their dissent towards the proposal, Niemi-Laine says. Both trade union confederations and the employers' federation expressed their doubts in respect of the proposal.

Nonetheless, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment decided to forge ahead with the drafting of a proposal, even though it is formed on a basis that has been widely criticised.

The Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL do not accept that employees should be the ones who should have to pay the price of the planned flexibility in working hours.

Helsinki (10.08.2017 - Heikki Jokinen) Trade Union Pro is building a new comprehensive employment service for all of its members. Union members will soon get a message concerning vacancies via their mobile phone.

The service includes a broad package of job seeking service, a search for vacancies and personal guidance and training. The service is free for all Union members and will begin this year.

Trade Union Pro already has a web page which highlights vacancies in the fields the Union is working. On the web page it is possible to search for a job according to region or profession.

Trade Union Pro has 115,000 members and is the largest private sector union for clerical employees.