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Helsinki (14.06.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) The Competitiveness Pact was finally signed on the evening of 14 June. Most of the Finnish unions endorsed the Pact and it now covers 86.5 per cent of Finnish wage and salary earners.

The national labour market pact or the so called Competitiveness Pact has been perhaps the main issue in Finnish politics for more than a year. The Government was determined to cut costs for employers and forced trade unions to accept a deal that makes everyone work 24 hours more a year for the existing rates of pay.

The Pact also includes further weakening of established working arrangements and benefits, like slicing 30 per cent off the holiday bonus for those working in the public sector. There will be no pay rises for one year.

Had the unions not acceped the agreement that was reached in the negotiations the Government was prepared to push ahead with hard austerity measures.

Helsinki (09.06.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) People working in new forms of work tend to be undetectable when it comes to the trade union radar, says Jarkko Eloranta, the newly elected President of SAK, the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions. Unions must be able to identify these people and reach out to them. In short, get them on board and improve their situation, he stressed.

The Congress of SAK unanimously elected Eloranta as the 21st president of the 109 years old Confederation at its Congress in Tampere on June 7.

In his acceptance speech Eloranta said that one of the most important tasks of SAK will be to draft guidelines for new ways of working and to modify social security so as to make it more appropriate for new forms of labour.

In his speech to the SAK Congress in the city of Tampere Eloranta stressed that Finnish society is based on the ability to make agreements, and provide public services, social security and education.

”Even small cracks in the basic structure might under pressure grow into gaping holes. In the event of that happening the consequences could prove to be unpredictable and serious”, Eloranta said.

Helsinki (27.05.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) These are the last days for negotiations on the new collective agreements under the umbrella of the national labour market pact. The dead-line on how to add 24 more annual working hours to some 300 collective agreements is June 1.

The national labour market pact or the so called competitiveness pact was agreed upon in February by the three trade union confederations and the employers' associations.

After the dead-line the Government will see whether the reformed collective agreements go far enough in cutting companies expenses and thus negate the need for proposed heavy austerity measures.

Helsinki (20.05.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) Finns do have a high regard for trade unions. In a recent survey 81 per cent of union members say the union is a neccesity. 83 per cent said their union has a high level of expertise and 71 per cent think it is open and easy to access.

These figures are from a survey commissioned by the Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK. A group of statistically representative 1 407 Finns took part in the survey this spring.

The image of the union tends not to vary very much between different age groups. Women have a slightly better opinion of their union than men.

Helsinki (03.05.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) Jarkko Eloranta, president of Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL will most probably be the next president of SAK, the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions. A comprehensive delegation of SAK union leaders asked him to be a contender and he said yes.

Eloranta (born 1966) has been the president of JHL since 2011. JHL is a trade union for employees in the public services and private welfare services sector with 255,039 members. This makes it the second biggest trade union in Finland after the Service Union United PAM with 232,140 members.

At the moment Eloranta is chairing the SAK General Council and also Chairperson of the Finnish Public Services Unions’ EU Working Party FIPSU. Prior to that he has been a member of the SAK board and is now a member of the important six-member strong SAK Steering Committee.

Helsinki (29.04.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) The much heralded formation of a new trade union confederation still remains elusive. A number of major unions say they are not going to join it.

By the end of 2014 a group of 22 Finnish trade unions entered into talks about establishing a new trade union confederation. This was supposed to start with a clean slate and it was hoped that most or even all trade unions would unite under the same roof.

It seems as if public service is some kind of blemish and private services something absolutely fabulous, she says.

”This view is wrong and shows that the Government has no understanding that most Finnish citizens pay tax, even gladly, to finance services for all. Public services belong to everyone and should not be handed over to the mercy of market forces.”

Helsinki (14.04.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) The Social Democrats kept their clear majority in the Metal Workers' Union gaining 62.3 per cent of the congress delegate votes. The populist right wing Finns Party lost their only delegate, after receiving a mere 0.1 per cent of the votes.

The 422 delegates to the 22nd congress of the Metalworkers’ Union were elected in the general elections from among its members. More than 57,000 members voted in this elections, 41.3 per cent of those eligible to vote.

The elections were almost totally dominated by the left wing parties. Besides the Social Democrats the other major group inside the Metal Workers' Union is the Left Alliance, which received 37.2 per cent of the votes.

Only one of the congress delegates came from other groupings and this was taken by the Centre Party who garnered 0.3 per cent of votes. In 1980's the Centre Party share of votes was higher - even as high as 4.2 per cent in the 1983 elections.

Helsinki (30.03.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) The collective bargaining system in Finland now comprises around 90 per cent of those who are in employment according to a new study published by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. This figure has increased somewhat since the previous study findings in 2008.

The study by Lasse Ahtiainen focuses primarily on developments in the private sector. In 2008 73.9 per cent of employees were covered by collective agreements and in 2014 it was 75.5 per cent.

In the public sector the collective bargaining system covers 100 per cent of employees. This makes the total number of people who fall under collective bargaining agreements to 89.3 per cent of all wage and salary earners. In 2008 the figure was a bit lower, at 87.5 per cent.