Archive

Helsinki (20.10.2010 - Juhani Artto) It all began in spring 2009 with the then Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen's proposal to raise the minimum retirement age from 63 to 65 ... and ended up on Wednesday in a comprehensive programme by a tripartite committee on employment and economic growth. The programme consists of over 90 proposals, none of which touches on the minimum retirement age. The committee's task force on how to extend working careers will continue its work.

Representatives of all three parties -the government and the employer and employee organisations- were seemingly happy when presenting the report. Much of the findings will most probably be included in the next government programme, once a new government is formed after the April 2011 Parliamentary elections.

Helsinki (19.10.2010 - Juhani Artto) Many union activists raised their eyebrows when the Service Union United PAM recently announced its decision to sponsor the controversial reality TV show Big Brother. Doubts and criticism concerning the move did not come as a surprise to the leaders of the union. But the decision has also been greeted with much applause.

So, why has PAM made this somewhat surprising decision?

According to Timo Piiroinen, the communication director of the union, BB is among the favourite programmes of PAM's rank and file members. Therefore, the union expects to reach, through its advertising on the programme, a considerable number of people working in the service industries where PAM operates.

Helsinki (08.10.2010 - Juhani Artto) The strike of 4,100 wood workers is over. The Wood and Allied Workers' Union and the employer association Finnish Forest Industry approved a new collective agreement on Thursday evening. The agreement covers 18,000 workers.

All workers will receive -starting retroactively from October 1- a 1.1 per cent increase in their wages. In addition an 0.8 pay rise is to be implemented on the basis of local negotiations.

The biggest obstacle to an agreement was resolved by leaving the regulations on the seniority allowance untouched. Originally it was the employer side that demanded changes to these regulations.

(07.10.2010 - Juhani Artto) Researchers Susan Kuivalainen from the University of Turku and Kenneth Nelson from Stockholm University conclude, on page 17, as follows: "A tentative conclusion could therefore be that the Nordic welfare state and Nordic social assistance arrangements indeed have changed since 1990, but differences compared to other welfare democracies seem nevertheless to persist.

This is mainly due to the same tendencies going on also in other types of welfare states. Thus, social assistance in the Nordic countries during the last one and a half decade is a story of both change and continuity. Changes have mostly been in the downward direction, with decreased benefit levels and less effective social assistance benefits to reduce poverty.

Helsinki (01.10.2010 - Juhani Artto) The Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK has become a new sponsor of the Trade Union News from Finland.

STTK has 20 affiliated trade unions. They represent 640 000 rank and file members. Thus, the more than13 year old electronic publication is now sponsored by two union confederations and eight trade unions. One of the unions is affiliated to the STTK, the other seven to the SAK.

Helsinki (01.10.2010 - Juhani Artto) About 4,000 mechanical forest industry workers went on strike in the afternoon on October 1. Both the Wood and Allied Workers' Union and its counterpart, the Finnish Forest Industries, rejected the proposal of the National Conciliator Esa Lonka.

According to the union the main disagreement concerned the seniority-based rewards. Many forest industry jobs are in regions where workers do not have many employment options. Therefore, many workers have had long working careers in the same company. The now expired collective agreement rewarded this by seniority allowances or bonuses that have long played a significant role in many workers' incomes.

Helsinki (30.09.2010 - Juhani Artto) The next Finnish government programme should strongly support the wood-working industries, the Wood and Allied Workers' Union  in its new government plan. It would help Finland both to reach the very demanding targets of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and to create new sustainable jobs.

More support for wood-working industries could be implemented by a tax reform that would favour products and production that are carbon neutral or whose carbon foot-print is small. The same criteria should be adopted in public investment support and research financing, the union says.

Helsinki (28.09.2010 - Juhani Artto) The Electrical Workers' Union suspects that Turkish electricians are not paid properly for building a new 400 kV transmission line in Southern Ostrobothnia. According to information received by the union directly from the work site, Turkish electricians are paid EUR6.5 per hour. It is only about half of the wage agreed upon by the industry's bargaining parties in their present national collective agreement.

Sauli Väntti, responsible for the union's work in the energy and ICT sectors, asked the authorities to look into the case on September 27 to determine whether or not there has been a breach of the collective agreement already in force.

The tender for building the transmission line was won by the German company SAG Gmbh. It has subcontracted the work to the Turkish company Internationale Freileitungsmontage (IFM). At present the latter has 33 employees doing the work in Finland. The EUR 9.5 million project has been commissioned by the Finnish company Fingrid which is the only transmission line operator in Finland. This company -which in effect holds a monopoly position- is owned by the State of Finland, private energy companies and private investors.

Helsinki (24.09.2010 - Juhani Artto) On September 29 - the common action day of European trade union movement

- Finnish union organizations will organize meetings in the capital Helsinki and several other cities. In Helsinki a mass meeting will take place on the traditional union stronghold Hakaniemi Square. Open air events will be organized also in Turku, Oulu and Jyväskylä.

Helsinki (09.09.2010 - Juhani Artto) The leaders of five industrial unions* and the Construction union announced on Wednesday their determination to cooperate closely during the on-going round of collective bargaining. At this stage cooperation primarily means an exchange of information and common analyses of inflation and other economic factors. Concrete forms of support are still open and to be considered later on if needed.

The industrial unions announced this plan on Wednesday and represent almost 200,000 union wage andsalary earners. The Construction Union has some 60,000 rank and file members. 

The six unions agree on these starting points in the bargaining that mainly consists of pay negotiations. The purchasing power of employees in all industries has to be secured by pay rises, the unions say. As inflation is predicted to rise by more than 2 per cent next year, the 1 per cent upper limit for pay rises, set by the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK, is clearly too low.