Archive

JHL (26.08.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The battle over ownership of the wholly state owned company Destia is still in the balance. Destia is a major road and railway construction and maintenance company with a market share of some 60 per cent of road-building work in Finland.

According to the newspaper Kauppalehti, the government is now planning to sell Destia and the sale price is estimated at anything between 150 and 200 million euro. Destia’s turnover in 2012 was over 500 million euro.

Helsinki (22.08.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The Finnish national flag carrier Finnair is planning to hire 200 cabin crew members from a temporary work agency in Spain. According to the company CEO, Pekka Vauramo, they could be used "possibly to replace the company staff in special situations".

What this means in practice is a willingness to use foreign staff as strike-breakers if the need arises. The collective agreement concerning Finnair cabin crew is due to end this October and a new round of bargaining is expected.

The Trade Union Confederation SAK strongly condemns Finnair plans. "It is completely underhand to hire strike-breakers to replace regular employees before collective bargaining has even commenced", says SAK lawyer Anu-Tuija Lehto.

Helsinki (16.08.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) Poverty in Finland has been increasing steadily since 1993, though in 2011 there was a slight downward trend. Poverty is defined as a situation where the net income of a family falls below 60 per cent of the median household income. For example, in a family of one person this means an annual income of 13,640 euro or 1,140 euro per month.

According to Statistics Finland poverty affects 13.2 per cent of the Finnish population. In 2010 some 700,000 people were thus classified. 63,000 were wage and salary earners, 38,000 entrepreneurs, 121,000 students and 191,000 pensioners.

The emerging problem is in-work poverty, when a wage or salary is not enough to meet the necessary costs of living. And this is a relatively new situation.

Helsinki (12.08.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) Inside few days the Metso engineering group has announced to cut in Finland 750 jobs and the Lemminkäinen construction group 250 jobs. Both are working also outside Finland.

Trade unions were flabbergasted about the planned redundancies in Metso group, where the cuts would mainly hit the units serving paper and pulp industry.

Pertti Porokari, chairperson of the Union of Professional Engineers in Finland UIL was shocked about the number planned staff reductions. "Redundancy is practically free in Finland. If looking only for euros, saving money here is seemingly easier."

JHL (08.08.2103 - Heikki Jokinen) Trade union work requires many operational skills at all levels of the organisation. In Pirkanmaa - the area around the city of Tampere - JHL is currently running a project to hone and develop the skills of their local activists. The project is called Pilot Pirkanmaa and it will continue until the end of the year.

Pilot Pirkanmaa is an intensive project where ten union activists are focusing on ways how to best influence municipal decision making and support local branches in this effort. Together with 60 JHL local branches in the region they follow closely what is going on in the municipalities and what kind of effects political decisions would have in practical terms e.g. when it comes to outsourcing or other structural changes.

Helsinki (02.08.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The usual reason for moving to Finland is love, when foreigners meet a Finnish man or woman and decide to get married and live in Finland. Finland is certainly not a major hub for immigration and throughout its history it has been mostly a country of emigration. As little as three per cent of people living in Finland are foreign citizens.

This pattern is slowly beginning to change. One reason is the economic crisis in Southern Europe. Many people who find themselves unemployed in countries like Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal are looking for work all over Europe. Though the major flow goes to countries like Germany and Britain, or in the Nordic region, to Sweden and Norway, Finland is also getting a growing share.

The Service Union United PAM last year made a survey among its 8,191 immigrant members. One of the questions asked was the reason for coming to Finland. In the 2002 survey a total of 47 per cent said it was because of love, in 2012 the figure was down to 41 per cent. In 2002 work was named as a reason by 9 per cent, but today 37 per cent of those who replied cited work as being the reason for their being in Finland.

JHL (01.08.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) Even though July is the deep holiday month in Finland - the month most Finns choose to take their holidays - JHL made a determined effort to make their presence felt in a place where many people go to visit. JHL took an active part for example at the SuomiAreena by setting up a stand and organising a public debate on early childhood education.

SuomiAreena is a public debate forum, taking place in the city of Pori on the Finnish west coast. The five-day event featured 125 debates with 600 speakers. The discussions mainly focus on politics, social issues and culture. This year the event attracted a total of 22,000 people who came to hear what the speakers had to say. The event coincides with a major jazz festival, Pori Jazz.

(27.07.2013 - Link to the web site of Yle News)

Helsinki (23.07.2013 – Juhani Artto) Outotec tops the list when it comes to labour costs per employee in Finnish companies in 2012. The list, published recently by the economics weekly Talouselämä (issue 20/2013), comprises figures from the hundred largest Finnish employers (not including public sector employers). The minerals and metals processing company Outotec last year paid out 81 373 euros per employee in direct and indirect labour costs.

The next company on the list, the fuel refiner and marketer, Neste Oil, ended up paying slightly less than 68 000 euros. It was marginally above the globally operating consulting company Pöyry, the Finnish broadcasting company Yle and the national airline Finnair. Coming just below the latter were Finavia (airport services), Tieto (IT services provider), Orion (pharmaceuticals) and Fujitsu Finland (ICT technology and services). Their labour costs per employee slightly exceeded  60 000 euros.

Helsinki (10.07.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The outsourcing of social services is not working in practice as it should according to the theory. Many municipalities are taking back the once outsourced services. It is not sure either whether buying services from private providers will save money for the municipalities at all.

This can clearly be seen from the Social Barometer 2013 published by Soste, the umbrella organisation of some 180 associations in the social sector. The Barometer is based on a questionnaire made for top-rank employees in the mainly municipal social and health care sector.