Archive

Helsinki (17.01.2012 - Juhani Artto) The Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland SASK recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. I believe that it is safe to say that the organization has far exceeded the expectations of the some 40 union representatives who participated in the founding meeting of SASK on 5 November 1986.

A short summary of SASK's development demonstrates why such a claim is justified. Its work has significantly expanded and developed when measured by all essential criteria.

Helsinki (05.01.2012 - Heikki Jokinen) Almost all of the eight candidates in the Finnish presidential elections, which will take place on January 22nd 2012, have ordered their campaign gift products from abroad, reports the Industrial Union TEAM.

The campaign pins, mugs, t-shirts, scarves, chocolate and other products are mainly made in the Far East or in some cases in the other European countries, TEAM discovered. Print work is more often than not done in Finland.

Helsinki (02.01.2012 - Juhani Artto) After Boxing Day there has been an urgent demand for skilled lumberjacks and electricians. The demand was created by the storms Finland experienced on Boxing Day and in the days following. The storms were exceptionally strong for this Northern European country, and knocked down, according to first estimates, some 3.5 million cubic meters of trees.

The economic loss for forest owners is estimated to be tens of millions of euros but the day-long cuts in electricity supply has been the main focus in the public domain. When things were at their worst almost 300,000 homes and other customers were left without electricity.

Helsinki (29.12.2011 - Juhani Artto) In the second quarter 2011 the average wages for female workers in Finnish industry were 84.9 per cent of average wages for male workers. In one year the gap has slightly narrowed but it was marginally larger than in the fourth quarter 2006. In the second quarter 2002 the corresponding figure was 80.5 per cent.

Helsinki (28.12.2011 - Juhani Artto) In Finland talk on the economy in the media has in recent months been very pessimistic despite the fact that purchasing power for wage and salary earners is expected to grow in 2012. The constant pessimistic utterances coming from experts have succeeded in undermining people's confidence in their own economic and financial viability to such an extent that it echoes autumn 2008 when recession badly hit European economies.

These gloomy sentiments ignore the prognosis published by the Taxpayers' Association of Finland (TAF) earlier in December. TAF estimates that wages and salaries will increase on average by 3.4 per cent, whereas prices are predicted to rise by 2.6 per cent. As taxes will slightly increase the real value of wages and salaries will improve on average of 0.6 per cent.

Helsinki (09.12.2011 - Juhani Artto) Last year, the almost 3,000 affiliates of foreign companies in Finland employed 215,000 men and women. This adds up to15 per cent of all company personnel in the country. The share of turnover was even higher, 20 per cent. 

Affiliates of Swedish companies employed over 70,000 persons, U.S. companies over 20,000 and both UK and German companies slightly below 20,000.

Helsinki (07.12.2011 - Juhani Artto) The Electrical Workers' Union announced on Friday that it has settled the dispute concerning the arbitrary sacking of dozens of organized Polish electricians at the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant construction site.

The Polish company Elektrobudowa SA has committed itself to re-employing all of the electricians it sacked in mid-November.

However, their jobs will not be in Finland but in Poland. Their status will improve nonetheless, as they will now have permanent employment relations as opposed to the temporary arrangement they had in Finland.

Helsinki (05.12.2011 - Juhani Artto) The life expectancy increased from 1988 to 2007 in all income quintiles except for the lowest one which has effectively been stagnant since the early 1990s. These trends have led to an alarming disparity in life expectancy between the highest and the lowest quintiles.

At the age of 35, the disparity widened from 7.4 to 12.5 years among men and from 3.9 to 6.8 years among women. This is the major finding of a new study made at the University of Helsinki.

Helsinki (30.11.2011 - Juhani Artto) Since 2007 the governments have reacted to abrupt structural changes with a certain set of measures designed to mitigate the rise in unemployment. A new study* indicates that the method has had a positive impact. Unemployment has clearly risen after all the redundancies and closure of factories but gradually, as a result of the measures adopted, the development has begun to follow the direction of other parts of the country, the researchers conclude.

Since 2007 altogether 22 areas, as well as the maritime industry, have been entitled to receive assistance as "areas of abrupt structural change". In almost five years governments have directed EUR 220 million for this purpose.

In addition, the financing company Finnvera has provided loans and guarantees worth EUR 500 million, and another financing company Suomen Teollisuussijoitus has been a source of investment to companies in these badly hit areas. Both of these financing companies are owned by the Finnish State.

Helsinki (28.11.2011 - Juhani Artto) Early on Monday morning the last obstacle on the road to the acceptance of a new labour market framework agreement was overcome. Then the trade union of transport drivers and port workers AKT and its employer counterpart agreed on details on how to apply the framework agreement, approved in October by the labour market confederations.

And so, the same morning these various confederations concluded that support for the agreement is broad enough to take effect. At noon the government announced that it had come to the same conclusion.