Archive

Helsinki (13.05.2009 - Juhani Artto) On Wednesday, about 350 freelancers and their supporters participated in a rally outside Sanomatalo, the main building of the Finnish-based multinational media company Sanoma. The protesters called on Sanoma News, part of the Sanoma Group, to sit down and negotiate –as opposed to the dictatorial stance it has chosen to take- its freelance agreement.

In April Sanoma News informed all freelance journalists, photographers and illustrators who do work for its publications that the company will adopt a new freelance agreement which would significantly affect the working conditions of freelancers for the worse.

By Wednesday 545 freelancers had given the Union of Journalists in Finland the right to negotiate, on their behalf, with Sanoma News, concerning the freelance agreement. It means that a large provision of freelancers, contributing to publications of Sanoma News, have already signed such a document.

Helsinki (11.05.2009 - Juhani Artto) In 2007, foreign citizens earned on average, 5.8 per cent less than Finnish citizens in the Finnish labour market. Finns made, on average, EUR 2,737 per month, and foreigners EUR 2,579.

The gap was largest in the private sector (7.7 per cent) and narrowest in the municipal sector (3.1 per cent). State employees were placed between those two sectors. In the municipal sector the pay gap between Finnish and foreign citizens narrowed slightly from 2001 to 2007. In the same period, the pay gap clearly increased in the private and state sectors.

About half of the 5.8 per cent pay gap is explained by differences in the job structures of Finns and foreigners. The remaining half may indicate unfair treatment of foreigners and/or foreigners being forced to have "lower" jobs than their educational background would allow.

Helsinki (07.05.2009 - Juhani Artto) The merger or amalgamation of several industrial unions will now take place on 1 January 2011, a year later than planned. The decision, reached unanimously, was made on Tuesday by the project management, which is made up of representatives from the unions involved in the amalgamation.

The extra year for merger preparations is needed to safeguard that the new union will be fully operational at the outset. In recent months, the original timetable for the merger began to look too tight, as the deep recession has caused a significant increase in the workload of union personnel and the unemployment funds.

The Electrical Workers' Union will not participate in the merger. On Wednesday the majority group of the union decided, unanimously, to withdraw from the merger project.

(01.05.2009) Finland’s leading newsprint publisher, Sanoma News, is currently demanding that its freelancers sign a contribution agreement drafted unilaterally by Sanoma News.

Sanoma News has announced that it will not enter into negotiations nor will it pay any additional compensation for a broader transfer of copyright. The message is clear: if you don’t sign and accept the terms and conditions, you won’t get work.

Freelancers’ earnings come, however, precisely from the sale of the copyright to articles, photographs and graphic work to different customers. If this right is lost, then the freelancers also lose the possibility to earn income from the original creative materials.

Helsinki (20.04.2009 - Juhani Artto) A recent PhD study of Mia Tammelin (University of Jyväskylä, Finland) investigated the working time practices of dual-earning families in Finland between years 1977 - 2003. The study also looked at the experiences on the work-family interface and the strategies that families use in organizing everyday life. The study concentrated on dual-earning couples, which are typical in Finland but of which there is only little research information.

Work and family spheres are often described through changes, yet both life spheres are better described with continuities; changes take place slowly. Regardless of the long perspective of a quarter of a century, there are no radical changes in the working time practices, although the time phase includes the economic growth, as well as deep recession during 1990s. Still, the so-called post-industrial working time regime is evident.

Helsinki (17.04.2009 / edited 20.04.2009 - Juhani Artto) This year, the sixteen largest Finnish-based industrial companies have, in total, approximately 106,000 employees in Finland - a quarter less than in 2000. In the same period the companies have almost doubled their personnel abroad.

A similar trend affects the whole industrial sector, but at a slower space. According to the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK Finnish-based companies of the sector employed 442,000 people in Finland last year and 360,000 outside of the country. In 2000, almost 500,000 people worked, in Finland, in the industrial sector.

Helsinki (07.04.2009) It has now become very apparent that the graphics industry in Finland has no real alternative other than a significant structural change. Overcapacity had already caused serious problems for many companies several years prior to the current recession, as the common practise was to compete by lowering prices. And consequently profits took a dip.

Now with demand rapidly slowing, due to the recession, the overcapacity problem has become even more aggravated.

A new study, commissioned by the Media Union, offers concrete figures on how serious the situation is. The study covers 373 small and medium-size companies, and 44 of these face "a high bankruptcy risk" and 99 "a rather significant bankruptcy risk". The situation is worst at plants that use mainly sheet-fed printing presses.

Helsinki (16.03.2009 - Juhani Artto) In the shops there are over 600 products based on nanotechnology, such as socks, tooth paste, sun cream and bed sheets. It has been forecast that annual sales will grow from the present EUR100 billion to EUR2,500 billion.

The possibilities are enormous but we know barely anything about the risks, says Kai Savolainen from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. And he is the right person to speak about risks, as he is the Institute's director of the nanotechnology safety research and acts also as the coordinator of European research projects on nanotechnology health risks. Recently SAK's magazine Palkkatyöläinen published his insights, presented in a trade union seminar, on nanotechnology risks.

Helsinki (20.02.2009 / edited 22.02.2009 – Juhani Artto) Campaigners and supporters of the merger between six industrial unions could heave a sigh of relief on Thursday evening. The ballots in two major unions ended in favour of the merger.

In the Metalworkers’ Union 55.6 per cent of the members, participating in the ballot, gave the green light to the merger. In the Chemical Workers’ Union 62.1 per cent voted for the merger. Voter participation was decent enough with 26.5 per cent of the Metalworkers’ Union and 29.5 per of the Chemical Workers’ Union coming out to cast their ballots.

The two unions are the largest ones of the six unions. Their rank and file members make up almost two thirds of the planned 330,000 rank and file super-union. Earlier the delegations of the Media Union (graphical workers) and the Wood and Allied Workers’ Union had positioned themselves clearly in favour of the merger.

Helsinki (17.02.2009 / updated 17.02.2009 - Juhani Artto) Should the Finnish and Estonian unions merge? In Jyrki Raina's opinion the idea is worth serious analysis and consideration. His comment was recently published in Ahjo, the magazine of the Finnish Metalworkers' union.

Raina works as the secretary general of the Nordic IN, a federation of 22 Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic unions that represent 1.2 million employees in the various industrial sectors and mining.

Nordic unions have supported Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian unions since the early 1990s. However, the support has not lead to a renewal of the Baltic trade unions, which has caused frustration in the Nordic unions, Raina writes.