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Helsinki (14.01.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) The number of redundancies in the private service sector grew by almost 60 per cent last year in comparison to the year 2013.

Companies operating in the service sector dismissed 6,431 employees in 2014, whereas the number laid off the year before was 4,057. In industry the number of redundancies was smaller, a total of 3,126.

12,447 employees in all lost their jobs, according to statistics from the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK. In the year 2013 the number was 14,522. The statistics are based on the news published and do not include the municipal sector.

JHL (18.12.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) The hardening attitudes of employers is challenging the whole labour market negotiation system, says Jarkko Eloranta, chairperson of Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL.

By way of example he mentions the recent and much publicised dismissal of the ABB Helsinki factory shop steward, which led to a major debate and a wave of protests in Finland. According to Eloranta JHL activists report ever increasing pressures on those who represent employees.

”This happens in situations when shop stewards are simply doing their job as part of a local negotiating and bargaining system, as they should do.”

Helsinki (16.12.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) Ann Selin, president of the Service Union United PAM from Finland, was elected as the next president of the UNI Global Union in the UNI World Congress in Cape Town.

In her acceptance speech she stressed the need for peace and sought to highlight the need for tripartism in the labour market as one part of this process. When first introduced in the peace congress in 1919 it was a daring idea, but now it has become a reality in many countries as well being central to the work of the ILO, the International Labour Organisation, se said.

”The idea of tripartism carries widely in promoting peace. We must use this and implement it nationally in every possible way we can. It helps nations to see that there is common ground and that cooperation is the key to peace and better lives for people.”

Helsinki (12.12.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) The firing of a shop steward at the ABB factory in Helsinki quickly brought about a heated debate. The company sacked shop steward Terho Laitila claiming that he was the instigator of illegal walk-outs.

Riku Aalto, the chairperson of Metal Workers' Union reacted robustly.

”The Federation of Finnish Technology Industries say they are willing to intensify local negotiations. But when there has been no result at factory level negotiations, the employer reacts by dismissing the shop steward for unwarranted reasons”, Aalto says.

”As things now stand when an employer doesn’t approve of a person elected by the employees, that person will be relieved of his or her duties.”

Helsinki (04.12.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) The push towards deeper trade union cooperation is clearly evident at union level also. Three major industrial unions are looking at ways to form closer cooperation.

The three unions - Paper Workers' Union, Metal Workers' Union and Industrial Union TEAM - organised a joint seminar in November to consider their options.

The threats facing all unions are pretty much the same: the sinking number of industrial jobs in Finland, the growing power of employers’ organisations and the diminishing share of industrial unions in the trade union confederations.

Helsinki (28.11.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) A meeting of 22 Finnish trade union leaders speaks of a goal to establish a new trade union confederation to replace the existing ones.

It will be a long and winding road, but the union leaders see an urgent need for a new, more comprehensive confederation which is essential if they are to work for their members' interests in a meaningful and vigorous way. The unions present at the meeting have a combined membership of 1.5 million and come from all Finnish trade union confederations.

Currently, there are three confederations in Finland. SAK, Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions is the foremost confederation with a little over one million members. Blue-collar workers make up the vast majority of the workers affiliated to this confederation.

The second largest is the Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK with 600,000 members. It mostly represents salaried employees.

Akava, the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland, has 585,000 highly educated members mainly in the academic and managerial professions.

Helsinki (24.11.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) Improving the negotiation culture at working places would cut clearly the number of industrial disputes, a survey carried out for the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK reveals.

The survey was conducted in November 2014 for the SAK unions shop stewards and industrial safety delegates and based on 960 replies.

Better staff policy and negotiation culture would very much reduce the number of industrial disputes, believe 71 per cent of those replied.

How to make the negotiation process smoother? By taking care that the employees' opinions are listened to better, say 29 per cent of those who replied in the survey. By limiting the employers priority interpreting collective agreements, says 27 per cent. By making sure that the employees will get sufficient information, says 22 per cent.

JHL (20.11.2104 - Heikki Jokinen)The JHL Union Council has decided to keep the membership fee for 2015 at the same level as now, 1.05 per cent of an employee's gross pay.

However, the Public and Welfare Sectors’ Unemployment Fund membership fee will rise a bit, from the 0.28 per cent of gross pay to 0.33 per cent. The total fee payable to the union and unemployment fund in 2015 will also be 1.38 per cent of gross pay.

The higher contribution to the unemployment fund is linked to growing unemployment. The fund has to have a certain guaranteed income and the fee is approved by the state Financial Supervisory Authority. This is the authority for supervision of Finland’s financial and insurance sectors.

Helsinki (14.11.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) The Finnish Government appointed Master of Laws Minna Helle as the new National Conciliator of labour disputes. She is the first women to hold this position. The appointment is for four years.

At the moment Minna Helle, 42, is working as the Director of Negotiations and Social Policy at the Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK. She will take up her new post in January 2015.

She has been working previously as a legal adviser at the Union of Journalists in Finland and as the director for employment relations and social policy both at Tehy, the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals and in Akava, the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland.

(Helsinki 07.11.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) The Council of Industrial Unions TP is growing. Four new unions signed up recently and now it encompasses 17 unions from all three trade union confederations.

The task of TP is to allow industrial unions to work together more closely in an effort to safeguard the interests of their members. This means activities in the fields of political influence and in economic and industrial policy.

TP has been in existence for more than 20 years but recent structural changes in Finnish industry have made it necessary for closer union cooperation in the industrial sector. More than 100,000 industrial jobs have disappeared in this millennium.