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Helsinki (20.09.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) The demonstration organised by the three trade union confederations brought 30,000 people to Helsinki in spite of heavy rain. The main message was to defend the unions' rights with regard to free collective bargaining and protest against austerity measures planned by the Government.

In tandem with the demonstration on Friday 18 September public transport, trains, harbours and air traffic ground to a halt. Quite a number of shops, offices, day-care centres and many factories including paper mills also shut down.

The total number of people who came out in protest against the Government measures was 300,000 around the country.

The Government is planning to limit and cut by law the extra pay for week-end and night work. These cuts will hit low paid women especially hard.

Helsinki (16.09.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) All three trade union confederations are calling on people to attend a major demonstration against the austerity measures and plans to limit freedom of agreement decided by the Finnish Government.

The demonstration will take place at the Helsinki Railway Station Square on Friday 18 September. Many unions have already started to organise participation. Some unions have say they will stop working during the demonstration and are calling it a political strike.

Public transport including harbours will be widely disrupted and daycare centres partly closed. The Paper Workers' Union will stop production at the paper mills for 24 hours.

JHL (14.09.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) The situation in the labour market in Finland is now exceptionally tense. The Government announced plans to introduce legislation that will shorten annual leave, eliminate two bank holidays, make the first day of sick leave unpaid and cut extra pay for working overtime and on Sundays.

The ones who will pay the price for all this will be women working in the public sector, says Jarkko Eloranta, Chairperson of the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL.

Annual leave will be shortened from 38 to 30 working days, if the Government get their way and this measure is passed in Parliament. “Some 60 - 70 per cent of those employed in municipalities and the state sector have holidays of more than 30 days”, Eloranta says.

The two scrapped bank holidays would be free days but unpaid.

Extra pay for working on Sunday would be limited to 75 per cent, down from 100 per cent. Overtime pay would be reduced to half, from 50 per cent to 25 per cent.

Helsinki (11.09.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) The new Government intends to shorten annual leave, eliminate two bank holidays, make the first day of sick leave unpaid and cut extra pay for working overtime and on Sundays. Naturally enough, the trade unions disapprove strongly and also stress that the Government is interfering dangerously with the right of labour market organisations to make their own agreements.

The right-wing Government of Prime Minister Sipilä announced it will introduce new legislation that sets the maximum limits of what can be agreed collectively in certain cases.

This goes against the accepted norms of collective agreements, which up until now, allowed for legislation to set minimum limits for what can be agreed upon, not maximum.

Existing labour legislation is designed to protect the weaker party, employees. Now the Government wants to turn this upside down and protect the interests of employers.

(Helsinki 02.09.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) Trade union membership in Finland remains high. And it is highest among those employed in industry, where 80.8 per cent of wage and salary earners belong to a union. Also, more women tend to be union members than men.

The latest figures are based on statistical information up until the end of 2013 and are from a study by Lasse Ahtiainen published by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. This is the fifth similar type study since 1989.

At the end of 2013 the total level of organised employees was 64.5 per cent. This shows a slight fall off in membership from a previous study in 2009 when union density was 67.4 per cent.

In the public service sectors, the rate of union membership was 76.3 per cent, while in the private service sectors it was 51.6 per cent.

JHL (31.08.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) The Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL is still ready to embrace measures to improve the prospects of Finnish services and products, says JHL Chairperson Jarkko Eloranta regarding negotiations on the so called social contract.

Back at the end of May Prime Minister Sipilä’s Government Programme set a target to improve Finnish economic competitiveness by reducing unit labour costs by at least five per cent.

To this end a tripartite process was embarked on by the Government, the employer associations and trade union confederations. The second round of these negotiations ended without a result in August.

”It is a pity that negotiations ended at such an early stage”, Eloranta says. ”Finland - we all - needs high quality services and products in order to succeed better than we are doing today, both in the domestic and international market.”

JHL (25.08.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) The City of Espoo decided in August to corporatize their municipal enterprise Espoo Catering. The employees are deeply disappointed and wore black ribbons on their arms for two days while working.

”We want to guarantee the food service of school pupils, day care centres and the elderly, but the black ribbon demonstrates our feelings following the decision”, says JHL shop steward Kristiina Salo for the Motiivi magazine of JHL.

There has been lengthy debate in the City of Espoo on whether to outsource or corporatize the city services. In May the City Council voted not to outsource technical and maintenance services.

JHL has strongly opposed the planned outsourcings and corporatizations. This is in line with the wishes of Espoo residents.

(Helsinki 22.08.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) Yet another attempt to draft a so called social contract for the labour market has failed. The discussion round now was about to draft a list of issues to be negotiated during the next year.

Back at the end of May Prime Minister Sipilä’s Government Programme set a target to improve Finnish economic competitiveness by reducing unit labour costs by at least five per cent.

To this end a tripartite process was embarked on between the Government, the employer associations and trade union confederations. Now, after several attempts Prime Minister declared that the negotiations have come to a close.

Helsinki (06.08.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) Talks surrounding the so called social contract promoted by the Sipilä Government begin to take shape. The Government has invited labour market organisations to agree on what kind of measures are needed to boost the Finnish economy and how to reach these goals, giving them until August 21 to come up with a plan.

The social contract idea has not worked according to plan so far. The Government Programme set a target to improve Finnish economic competitiveness by reducing unit labour costs by at least five per cent. The contract should show the way how.

However, previous attempts to reach a labour accord failed. The Government adopted more or less fully the employers’ shopping list for labour market measures. This included an idea to make Finns work two and half weeks more in a year without any pay increase.

The initiative says that current Finnish legislation allows municipalities to limit institutional care and replace it with home care. This results not only in problems with the level of care but also higher costs for the older people themselves.