Archive

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."

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.