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Helsinki (13.12.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) UPM, the Finnish forestry giant, is still confounding everyone with its stance on collective agreement negotiations. On the one hand, it refuses even to negotiate with the unions and on the other hand, it somewhat surprisingly accepts some pay deals.

The Industrial Union reached on 10 December two new collective agreements in the mechanical forestry industry sector with UPM.

The UPM Plywood and UPM Timber pay deals follow the general line of the forestry pay rise, the Industrial Union says without revealing yet the exact nature of the pay rise. The two new collective agreements are valid for three years and will come into effect as of 1 January 2022.

Helsinki (07.12.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) Violence and harassment at workplaces are not uncommon. Offences of this nature are more often directed at women than men, according to recent surveys.

Akava, the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland, and STTK, the Finnish Confederation of Professionals, both published at the end of November surveys on violence at workplaces.

The surveys in question provide similar results: violence or the threat of violence is a feature of working life. The Akava survey finds that 23 per cent of Akava members have faced violence or the threat of violence in their work in the last three years.

Helsinki (25.11.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) The steadfast action against an employers’ bogus "union" for those employed distributing unaddressed mail and free-sheet newspapers bears fruit.

The Finnish Post and Logistics Union PAU has succeeded in getting employers in the branch to pay hundreds of thousands euro in compensation for underpaying employees that were under a generally binding collective agreement.

Since 2009, there has been a generally binding collective agreement in the branch and all companies are obliged to follow it. Some employers were unhappy with it and set up their own "trade union" - the so-called yellow union - Suomen Mainosjakajien Etujärjestö SME.

Helsinki (18.11.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) At least three trade unions will cut their membership dues from the beginning of the next year.

JHL, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors had already decided to cut dues from the current 1.38 per cent of taxable wage or salary to exactly one per cent. JHL will also introduce a cap on the union fee, 600 euro a year.

Jan Saarinen, JHL Director of finance says in the union press release that the union will compensate the loss of income from dues using the wealth the union has accumulated over the years. Services will not be cut.

The Industrial Union board unanimously proposed to their Union Council meeting at the end of November a similar move to one per cent due. At the moment the Industrial Union dues is 1.33 per cent of taxable income.

Helsinki (11.11.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) Wednesday 10 November is the day the Finnish Tax Administration publishes all tax data from the year 2020. Each year this is a memorable event. The Finnish media was soon full of information on the incomes of top earners; business people, sportsmen, artists and even the most famous prisoners.

In Finland, detailed tax data is made public by law. Everyone has the right to know and see the income earned and tax paid by their fellow citizens. This openness is widely seen as a fundamental part of a democratic society.

It reveals what kind of work is rewarded, what is happening in business right now, and naturally, knowledge of income provides a background for discussion on equality in working life.

Helsinki (26.10.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) Employers are finally willing to proceed with negotiations for a new collective agreement for the technology industry.

They have furnished the Industrial Union with a list of companies that are ready to join the national level collective agreement. The union believes this list to be so comprehensive that the collective agreement will become generally binding. Now, the work can begin.

Riku Aalto, president of the Industrial Union says in his blog on the union web page that normally by this time in autumn most of the issues in the collective agreement are already negotiated.

Helsinki (21.10.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) The keys to opening up collective bargaining for the technology industry are now in the employers hands, says the Industrial Union. The existing national generally binding collective agreement runs out at the end of November.

The process of negotiations has changed since the former agreement partner Technology Industries of Finland decided in March 2021 to pull out of all collective bargaining. They established a new association, the Technology Industry Employers of Finland, to negotiate on behalf of those companies that are willingly to join it.

Negotiations should be going on now as time is running out. Yet in spite of that the new employers' association moves very slowly. It does not even tell which companies have joined it and will accept new members next time at the end of October.

Helsinki (14.10.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) The forestry industry giant Stora Enso has agreed upon a company based collective agreement with the Paper Workers' Union. The deal is for 28 months and will raise pay by 4.7 per cent.

In October 2020, the Finnish forestry companies declared that in the future they will only make collective agreements on a single company basis. So far the paper workers have been covered by one generally binding collective agreement. Now, the Paper Workers' Union must negotiate more than 40 separate collective agreements.

Stora Enso is the first forestry company to make a company based deal. This has created some hope that there will not be complete chaos in the branch when the existing national agreement expires at the end of December.

Helsinki (01.10.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) In September, the Metsä Group announced it would not abide by the court ruling in a case concerning terms of employment.

Needless to say, the unions were totally flabbergasted by this. In Finland, court decisions are sacrosanct and up until now have always been obeyed, both by unions and employers.

The background to the dispute is the infamous deal in 2016, when PM Juha Sipilä’s right-wing Government forced almost all trade unions to accept 24 unpaid annual extra working hours in their collective agreements.

Helsinki (15.09.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) Journalists from Afghanistan have arrived safely in Finland, say the Union of Journalists in Finland UJF. The Union accommodates them with their family members temporarily in flats the union owns.

For security reasons, the Union cannot disclose yet how many people have arrived and how they got to Finland.

"Afghan journalists and fixers have been helping Finns to get information from the region. Now it is our turn to help", said UJF President Hanne Aho in a press release in September.