Archive

Helsinki (17.07.2011 - Juhani Artto) The Electrical Workers' Union has good news from the construction site of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant on the Finnish West Coast. More and more Polish electricians have come to realise that they are being badly exploited by their Polish employers and have joined the Finnish Electrical Workers' Union. From Elektrobudowa alone, over one hundred Polish electricians are now rank and file members of the union and benefit from its legal advice and other services. Thus, a third of the company's electricians at the Olkiluoto site are now organized.

This makes it easier for the union to sort out ambiguities in wages and other working conditions, says Hannu Luukkonen, an employee of the union working mainly on matters at Olkiluoto. The national collective agreement on electricians' working conditions is of generally binding character, he emphasizes and lists seven foreign companies that are obliged to respect the agreement. The companies are Elektrobudowa, Elektromontage Gdansk Spoika Akcyjna, Elmon, Megasystem, Murex, Phu Widig and Wawenet.

Helsinki (11.07.2011 - Juhani Artto) The from four to six week vacations enjoyed by Finnish wage and salary earners rank high among the achievements of the Finnish trade union movement. However, nowadays employers often interfere with vacationers' well-earned leisure time by contacting them with various requests. Mobile phones and mobile net connections have made it technically easy for employers to contact their employees whenever the need arises.

A new survey made by the salaried employees' trade union Pro gives a detailed picture on how often these interventions take place. Among private sector salaried employees, in the worst case scenarios are foremen/supervisors, as employers are likely to contact 41 per cent of them during their vacation. On average 28 per cent of the private sector salaried employees can expect to be disturbed during their vacation by their employers.

Helsinki (07.07.2011 - Juhani Artto) Trade unions want employees in atypical jobs to have identical rights as wage and salary earners in permanent full-time jobs. However, regulations on working conditions in atypical jobs still fall short of this demand.

This is true also concerning the length of annual leave. "The logic is this: The shorter the employment relation is and the more it diverges from the typical employment relation, the poorer the annual leave rights are", Anu-Hanna Anttila, a sociologist from the University of Turku, writes on SAK's web site.

Helsinki (20.06.2011 - Juhani Artto) The basic line of the new government programme is acceptable to the trade unions. This indisputable conclusion may be drawn from early comments made by the Presidents of the three union confederations (Akava, SAK, STTK) and also from the reactions of Presidents of several large national trade unions, such as JHL and PRO.

The 89-page programme consists not only of general outlines with respect to future policy but numerous concrete solutions. The government is determined to put an end to growing inequality and bring about at least a modest improvement in the standard of living of poor people.

The spike in the budget deficit will be slowed down significantly and unemployment will decrease, assuming that the fairly brisk economic growth continues. Trade union leaders regard trends of this nature as necessary and fair.

Helsinki (17.06.2011 - Juhani Artto) "Recent events in the Arab world came as much of a surprise to us, and no doubt to everyone else too", says Kari Tapiola* who works as a special adviser to ILO's DirectorGeneral Juan Somavia. In the last few months Tapiola has mainly been working on issues arising from ILO's involvement in the Arab countries.

The ILO has a long history in many parts of the Arab world. Within the region there is a huge need for assistance revolving around issues covered by the ILO's mandate: employment, social justice, trade union rights etc. The changes now taking place will most certainly add to requests for ILO's services, Tapiola goes on.

Tampere (07.06.2011 - Juhani Artto) The speeches at the SAK Congress general discussion - altogether some 70 contributions – conveyed convincing evidence that the "SAK movement" has reached a broad consensus on its goals and the means to achieve them. This is not to say that there aren’t any disagreements. There certainly are, but they do not divide the movement into warring factions and it is safe to say any disagreements over strategy or tactics are handled in a concrete and open manner. 

The basic line to protect honest work, core labour rights and vulnerable people is beyond dispute. And the essential aim to strive for equality, in all its dimensions, is shared by all as a common goal. Without any doubt, everybody attending this Congress wants the grey or black economy to be tackled effectively.

Youth well represented in several union delegations
SAK, Tampere (06.06.2011) SAK's 18th Congress has opened at Tampere Hall. The affiliated unions, which make up the Confederation are represented by 270 delegates, coming from various regions of the country. One delegate lives as far north as Kilpisjärvi, in Northern Lapland, whereas 12 per cent of the delegates come from Helsinki. Three delegates have immigrant backgrounds. SAK's largest member organization the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL has, with its 53 delegates, the largest delegation. The Service Union United PAM has 49 delegates and the Metalworkers' Union 36. Each one of the smallest unions has only one representative.

Shop steward Pentti Mäkinen expects thorough and full-going discussion on SAK's goals 
SAK, Tampere (06.06.2011) "I hope that participants will have a broad-based and thorough discussion on SAK's goals for the next few years. And following intense debate, serious decisions must be taken to tackle current problems affecting wage and salary earners." This is how Pentti Mäkinen, one of the most experienced delegates at the SAK 18th Congress, described his expectations on Monday morning when entering the Tampere Hall, the venue of the congress.

Helsinki (01.06.2011 - Juhani Artto) Statistics for the 2011 January-March quarterly period show that the real incomes of wage and salary earners were 1.0 per cent below the level for January-March 2010. It was back in July-September 2007 when quarterly statistics showed the last previous negative trend, but one has to go back to 1993 to find negative figures on an annual basis.

When trying to assess 2011 as a whole, current data available suggests negative growth in respect of the real value of wages and salaries. Collective agreements signed since August 2010 have meant lower pay rises when measured against inflation.

Helsinki (27.05.2011 - Juhani Artto) Akava, the union confederation that represents teachers and a broad spectrum of academic professionals elected a new President on Wednesday. He is Sture Fjäder, 53. He has been an Akava's board member since 1995 and has worked in different capacities for SEFE, The Finnish Association of Business School Graduates, since 1989. Recently, he was named as SEFE's Head of Policy Development.

Akava consists of 34 affiliated unions, totalling 550,000 rank and file members. Membership has more than doubled in last two decades.

Helsinki (23.05.2011 - Juhani Artto) The union confederation SAK is set to approve EUR1,800 per month as its next goal for minimum pay. This proposal is included in the draft action program 2011-2016 for the SAK Congress on June 6-8 in Tampere. The idea is to reach the goal by 2016.

For readers in low pay countries the goal may sound extravagant but when the high level of Finnish taxation, cost of living and prices for daily necessities is taken into consideration  EUR1,800 per month only offers a very basic standard of living, even for a single person.