Archive

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.

Helsinki (11.09.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The presidents of the member unions of the Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK called for Antti Palola’s candidature for the next President of STTK. Palola was thankful for the unanimous support and said he is ready to undertake the task.

Mikko Mäenpää, the President of STTK since 1999 had already made it be known that he would step down at the STTK Council meeting in December this year.

Antti Palola (54) is current President of the Federation of Salaried Employees Pardia. It is one of the major unions in STTK with some 60,000 members. The majority of their members work in government agencies and institutions and a significant number in public bodies, enterprises, companies, universities and the Social Insurance Institution Kela. Mikko Mäenpää was the chairperson of STTK-J, the predecessor of Pardia before he became the leader of STTK.

Helsinki (05.09.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The fate of the national agreement on wages and salaries is now in the hands of union and employer organisations. They have until 25 October to bargain for new collective agreements within their branches.

The trade union confederations agreed on 30 August with the employers' organisations on a national agreement on wages and salaries. If there are enough unions and branches willing to accept the national agreement, it will become valid in October.

Helsinki (01.09.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The trade union confederations SAK, STTK and Akava reached a central agreement on wages and salaries with the employers’ organisations on Friday 30 August. The agreement offers a very modest rise in pay across the board over the next two years.

All monthly salaries will be raised by a flat rate of 20 euros beginning four months after the agreement is valid. A year later salaries will be increased by 0.4 per cent.

The agreement covers two years with an option to extend it for a third year. This will be decided in June 2015, after the parliamentary elections in April 2015 and the formation of a new government.

To support the settlement the Government promise to cut income tax by 1.5 per cent, which should compensate for inflation. The cut will not apply to those with an annual income of 100,000 euro or more.

Union confederations are recommending that their member unions support the agreement. The first reactions have been positive, though many unions will not formally make their decision on the central agreement for a few days yet.

Helsinki (30.08.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The three union confederations SAK, STTK and Akava together with the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland SASK met all Finland's ambassadors at the Annual Meeting of Finnish Heads of Mission to tell about their international trade union and solidarity work. The meeting is organised by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

STTK secretary general Leila Kostiainen addressed the ambassadors to speak about international trade union co-operation and the Union Confederations goals within a European perspective. The international trade union movement is now a stronger player than before, due to the establishment of the International Trade Union Confederation ITUC, she said.

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."