Archive

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.

"It is important that job alternation leave should remain as a measure to support the managing of work and employment and also within reach of those with lower salaries", she says.

Job alternation leave is an arrangement whereby an employee and employer conclude an agreement allowing the employee to take leave for an agreed time of between 90 and 359 days. The employee will get an allowance that is 70 - 80 per cent of his/her estimated unemployment benefit.

Helsinki (27.09.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) Exports will recover and the recession will ease. This is the prediction of The Labour Institute for Economic Research in their forecast for the Finnish economy 2013 - 2014. The Institute expects Finland’s gross domestic product to contract by 0.6 per cent this year. Earlier, in March this year they had forecast a 0.6 per cent rise.

The change is explained by the prolonged recession in Europe and a lower level of investments. The growth expected in neighbouring Russia and Sweden has also been slower than predicted. This has had a negative effect on Finnish exports.

Helsinki (15.09.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The sale of Nokia mobile phones to Microsoft came as a shock to Finland. For Finland Nokia is more than just a major company, it is an integral part of the Finnish success story. Nokia was the main vehicle that enabled the country to recover from for the deep recession of the early 1990's.

The success it achieved in the not so recent past was nothing short of remarkable. The knock on effect was that it generated a great deal of faith and trust in Finnish engineering competence as well as giving a boost to national self-confidence.

The news was as confusing for the trade unions as to everyone in Finland. It is difficult and too early to say what will happen with Nokia mobile phone units in Finland. Nokia mobile phones currently employs around 4,700 workers in Finland.

JHL (12.09.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) Most of the threatened cutbacks and reorganising of state research institutes were avoided, but many questions still remain open, says JHL’s Chief Executive Officer Päivi Niemi-Laine.

The Finnish Government has decided in principle to reorganise the research institutes, but the position being adopted now is different from the original plans criticized by JHL. The Geological Survey of Finland will remain independent. The National Institute for Health and Welfare and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health will not merge, as previously planned.

JHL has been anxiously following the reorganisation of public research institutes but sees the Government decision as a step in the right direction.