Trade Union News from Finland

Helsinki (19.09.2022 - Heikki Jokinen) The deadlock in nurses' collective bargaining led to a new law restricting the right to strike and has caused serious friction in the Government.

Tehy and Super, the nurses' unions, announced five limited strikes in intensive care units and home care, to begin in September. This did not speed up the collective bargaining process, instead the employers asked the courts to outlaw strikes.

The Helsinki District Court promptly accepted requests from three hospital districts to delay the nurses' strikes at hospital intensive care units, but not in regard to home care. The reason for this ruling was the great risk to patients, and possibility of fatalities.

Helsinki (09.09.2022 - Heikki Jokinen) In June, the two nurses' unions Tehy and Super pulled out of the major municipal sector collective agreement. Presently, collective bargaining for the nurses’ is ongoing, but the debate around the deal is getting heated.

Tehy - The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals in Finland and Super - the Finnish Union of Practical Nurses are clear in their demands: nurses must get a real pay rise in order to solve the growing shortage of nurses. For the unions, this is a matter of patient security.

Aki Lindén, the social democratic Minister of Family Affairs and Social Services has taken a stance on the issue. He had already started preparing the Patient Safety Act, which would force nurses, in some cases, to work and thus limiting their right to strike.

Helsinki (02.09.2022 - Heikki Jokinen) Forestry giant UPM adamantly refuses to engage in collective bargaining with their salaried employees. Since the beginning of this year, they have not had any collective agreement whatsoever.

According to the UPM press release last December, "defining terms of employment without collective agreement gives the same starting point and possibilities for everyone".

Now, UPM has had time to translate this into reality as there is no collective agreement for their salaried employees in Finland. Their actions seem to be based on a policy of divide and rule.

Helsinki (26.08.2022 - Heikki Jokinen) Sture Fjäder, Akava President, is to stand as a candidate for the Finnish parliament in the next elections in April 2023. For this reason, he stepped down as President on 22 August and Akava will get a temporary replacement until congress meets on 14 November.

Akava, the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff, is one of the three trade union confederations with 615,000 members. Akava Director Pekka Piispanen will now take over the daily running of the office and be in charge of the handling of Akava’s interests.

Akava board meetings are to be chaired alternately by three Vice Presidents Salla Luomanmäki, Katarina Murto and Mikko Salo. Vice President Jari Jokinen is a candidate in the upcoming Akava presidency and will not chair any board meetings.

  1. Labour market parties shoot down the Minister's proposal of income tax cuts to partly replace pay rise
  2. New union website helps to deal with racism in multicultural workplaces
  3. Anu Sajavaara appointed National Conciliator
  4. Akava President Sture Fjäder to step down prematurely
  5. Finally, a pay deal for the municipal sector – excluding nurses’ unions
  6. Municipal sector negotiations deadlocked
  7. Nurses' unions say no to the conciliation committee pay deal proposal
  8. Local government strike closes schools, daycare centres, museums, public libraries
  9. UPM strike over - paper machines up and running again
  10. Strike pay varies a lot from union to union