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Helsinki (01.09.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) The Finnish forestry giant UPM says it is ready to organise terms of work in Finland without any collective agreement altogether after the existing agreements expire. The Paper Workers' Union is willing to negotiate at company level, but UPM refuses to consider the possibility.

In October last year, the forest industry employers' association decided that it would pull out of national level collective agreements. All collective agreements should be made at company level. The existing national agreements expire at the end of 2021.

On 10 August, the Paper Workers' Union announced that collective bargaining is going on in companies that cover 70 per cent of the employees of the existing paper workers' collective agreement.

Helsinki (31.08.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) The share of people under the poverty line drops when trade union density grows. The work and efforts of the trade union movement narrows income differences. And the coverage and extensiveness of the collective agreements has an even stronger impact in levelling income differences than the organising level of employees.

These are some of the findings of Ari-Matti Näätänen, a doctoral student, summarised in a new report on trade union movement impact on income differences and competitiveness in OECD countries.

The report was commissioned by STTK, the Finnish Confederation of Professionals.

Helsinki (24.08.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) A turbulent labour market autumn lies ahead for Finland due to the new confused situation in the technology and forest industries. In October 2020, the forest industry employers declared they would no longer take part in collective bargaining.

In March 2021, the Technology Industries of Finland announced that it was also directly pulling out of national collective bargaining. Instead, it did establish a new association, which should henceforth handle all matters connected to collective bargaining. It is up to individual companies whether they want to join it or not.

This offensive against comprehensive collective bargaining demands a determined response from the trade unions. The new collective agreements should be negotiated this year. Now unions are preparing ways to answer the attack and guarantee decent terms of work that will cover all employees, as has been the case so far.

Tekijä (14.07.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) In 1917, the Finnish Parliament made a historic decision: daily working hours were limited to eight hours a day, and a maximum of 47 hours a week. Working on Sundays now offered better pay. The law was the goal of the labour movement and passed due to a general strike in November 1917.

In 2021, the law is still basically the same. Except that now the legal maximum weekly working time is 40 hours since we introduced free Saturdays from the mid 1960's on.

So why do most of us work less than 40 hours a week? The answer is collective bargaining. The law sets the limit, but with collective agreements it is possible to make better deals for employees.

This is the essence of collective bargaining and for this reason some hard-line employers want to scrap the system. They dream of making the law a directive for terms of work, at least for those without strong negotiation power.

Helsinki (29.06.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) Akava will cease its involvement in the Labour Institute for Economic Research PT and focus on its own research, done by their think-tank Akava Works.

Akava, the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland is one of the three trade union confederations in Finland. Since 1993, all three - together with several trade unions - have been members of the support association of the Labour Institute for Economic Research PT.

The Institute’s roots go back to 1951 when the People’s Market Research Institute started as the first research institute of the Finnish labour movement. Since 1974, after some reorganising, the Institute has been an independent body supported by an association with several member organisations.

Helsinki (16.06.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) From September 2021, Finland will have a new major collective agreement for the municipal sector social and health care workers. This agreement covers some 180,000 employees, more than 40 per cent of local authority employees.

Right now municipal sector social and health care workers are still part of the big General Collective Agreement for Municipal Personnel (KVTES). It covers a total of 421,000 employees.

Tehy - The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals in Finland and Super - the Finnish Union of Practical Nurses have been demanding for a long time their own collective agreement for municipal social and health care workers.

Helsinki (01.06.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) On June 13, Finland will vote in municipal elections. There are 309 municipalities in all. The latter wield considerable power - and money - to organise things like daycare, schools, traffic, public housing, cultural services, sport facilities and - until the upcoming administrative reform - health care, too.

The size of the municipal council depends on the number of inhabitants and varies between 13 and 85 seats. In total, voters will elect some 9,000 councilors. Before the actual election day there is advance voting between 26 May and 8 June in hundreds of locations.

Local elections are important for the trade unions, and especially important for the unions working in the public sector and municipal services. The decisions made in municipal councils can radically affect the terms of employment, for instance whether to outsource services or not.

Helsinki (11.05.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK and Workers' Educational Association TSL will provide digital training skills to one thousand employees in the next two years. Google.org is supporting the project to the tune of 220,000 euro.

The Skillplus programme will focus on helping workers whose professions are undergoing high rates of change due to technology. These branches tend to be in industry, services, construction and transport. There is also training for those who’ve lost their jobs due to the corona pandemic.

Training sessions take from one to four days and are for 12 - 20 people. And it is free for employees and employers alike. The content depends on the needs of the participants. The first training pilot was held in April for Finnish Construction Trade Union members. SAK and TSL cooperate with the unions in organising the courses.

Helsinki (06.05.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) A total of 68 per cent of Finns agree that a strong trade union movement is a vitally important part of Finnish society, according to a survey commissioned by the newspaper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus.

This question was put to 1,054 Finns at the end of April. Those who agreed fully made up 31 per cent and those who partly agreed accounted for 37 per cent. Those who totally disagreed amounted to only eight per cent and those who partly disagreed 16 per cent.

Not surprisingly, 94 per cent of those voting for social democrats, saw a strong trade union movement as being important for the country. For those voting for Left Alliance the figure was 91 per cent and for Greens 86 per cent.

Helsinki (29.04.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) Targeting, harassment or cyberbullying are an unfortunate reality for many people due to their work. The problem is growing, and the unions are working to help victims both in a practical way and through political action.

Problems occur in many jobs: from supermarket cashier to police and journalists. In 2019, the Union of Journalists in Finland took an initiative to establish the Journalists’ Support Fund. It gives economic support for journalists who have been subjected to threats, persecution and other forms of harassment.

The media houses and employers associations do also support the fund. It works under the Foundation to Promote Journalistic Culture (Jokes), which is a foundation run by the Journalist Union to administer the journalists' collective authors' rights remunerations.