Archive

(03.11.2013 - Link to the web site of Yle News)

(03.11.2013 - Link to the web page of Service Union United PAM)

Helsinki (30.10.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) All three trade union confederations Akava, SAK and STTK look on the new national agreement for wages and salaries positively given the present severe economic situation. The confederations signed the pact for employment and growth - as it is officially called - on Friday evening 25 October.

Following that most unions and employers associations decided to join the pact; it covers some 93 per cent of the Finnish wage and salary earners. The main union to stay outside is the Finnish Construction Trade Union.

Helsinki (29.10.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) Most of the multinational companies active in Finland prefer to keep silent about their tax footprint. The German pharmaceutical giant Bayer is not one of them, and for a good reason: they pay full corporate tax for their companies in Finland.

The Nordic region headquarters of Bayer is located in Espoo, Finland. They also run a pharmaceutical factory in the city of Turku. Bayer has some 800 employees in Finland and 110,000 globally.

In 2011 Bayer was the third biggest corporate tax payer in Finland (84 million euro), leaving behind many multinationals based here, like UPM-Kymmene, Metsä Fibre and another pharmaceutical company Orion.

JHL (29.10.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) JHL organised a member gathering in connection with the “Osaava nainen” fair in Turku at the end of October. The Union policy is to go where the members are and it has an important issue in the “Osaava nainen” fair for many years.

The JHL Chief Executive Officer Päivi Niemi-Laine spoke to some 400 members present at the event, stressing that in planning municipal saving measures the gender aspect must not be overlooked. Many municipalities are planning redundancies and women are an easy target in this respect. This development could serve to seriously undermine equality in Finnish working life.

Helsinki (25.10.2013 - Juhani Artto) Main stream politicians and economists have, in the past few years, called for reforms that would seek to increase the labour supply. Jaakko Kiander does not buy the idea.

Kiander is the Senior Vice President of the pension insurance company Ilmarinen and former director of the Labour Institute for Economic Research.

According to Kiander, the belief in reforms that would increase the labour supply originates from the reform agenda of the Swedish four-bourgeois-party government. It believes that increasing the labour supply improves employment but Kiander says this belief is "weakly justified". The results of the policy have remained poor. Its supporters reply to critics of this policy that its positive results will be seen in the long run.

Helsinki (20.10.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The deadline for the national labour market settlement on Friday 25 October at 16.00 is fast approaching, but most of the negotiations at union level are still open. Some negotiations have not even really started.

The trade union confederations and the employers’ organisations agreed on 30 August on a national agreement on wages and salaries, the Pact for Employment and Growth. If there are enough unions and branches willing to accept the national agreement, it will become valid in October. The task is not an easy one as there are some 280 collective agreements to negotiate.

JHL (14.10.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) JHL gives now possibility to get the union membership card in the smart phone instead of a traditional plastic card. First it is offered to a pilot group of student members, later this year for all members.

Many reductions and other membership benefits are available with the union membership card. These include for example cheaper prices in the union own holiday resorts and on selected other holiday spas and resorts.

Helsinki (14.10.2013 – Heikki Jokinen) The development projects coordinated by the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland SASK reached 182,327 people in 2012. A total of 64 projects took place in 49 countries. The number of separate project actions was 2,271.

The main goal of SASK is to strengthen trade unions around the world in order to make them more capable of defending workers' rights especially in the fields of collective bargaining, labour rights and influencing decision making.

Helsinki (03.10.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) Pressure to change the legal status of Thai berry pickers in Finland is growing. So far the thousands of seasonal wild berry pickers from abroad have been working entirely at their own risk.

The Wood and Allied Workers’ Union demands that their work be regarded as real employment and covered by the collective agreement which applies to allied rural industries. The pickers of cultivated berries are covered by the collective agreement.

Behind the recent discussion is the ongoing dispute between some 50 Thai wild berry pickers and the company that buys their berries. According to Finnish legislation picking wild berries in forests is a right to be enjoyed by everyone and is also exempt from taxation.