Trade Union News from Finland

Helsinki (13.01.2022 – Heikki Jokinen) The new collective agreement for the technology industry will raise pay by 2 per cent in 2022. On January 7, The Executive Committee of the Industrial Union adopted the agreement by 20 votes to 8.

When approving the agreement, the union cancelled all planned industrial action in the technology industry. It had given a strike warning just a few days before the deal was struck.

The general pay rise for all will be 1.5 per cent and a locally agreed component of 0.5 per cent. The deal is valid until 30 of November 2023, but it can be terminated by 30 November 2022 if the parties do not reach agreement on a pay for 2023 before that.

Helsinki (20.12.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) The forestry giant UPM crusade against collective bargaining escalates: it promises to pay 30 euro extra per day to all employees who will work as strikebreakers.

Almost all Finnish forestry companies have now agreed with the trade unions upon collective agreements for the next few years. Among them are the two other major companies Stora Enso and Metsä Group.

But UPM is a notable exception: it says it will not make any kind of collective agreement for salaried employees and it will only begin to negotiate on collective agreements for workers in its paper and pulp mills if the unions fully accept its preconditions as to the form of the agreement.

Helsinki (16.12.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) Antti Palola will continue as the President of STTK, the Finnish Confederation of Professionals. He has been the President since 2013.

Before STTK Antti Palola (62) was 2005 - 2013 President of the Federation of Salaried Employees Pardia which represented salaried employees working mostly in the state and public sector. In 2019, Pardia merged with the Trade Union Pro.

By profession Palola is a sea captain. In his earlier career prior to Pardia he was working among other things on ships, in the Finnish Ship's Officers' Union and as a teacher in naval schools.

Helsinki (14.12.2021 - Heikki Jokinen) FOPCU, the paper workers' union in Uruguay is worried about UPM’s unwillingness to negotiate with the trade unions in Finland. At the beginning of December, the union sent a letter to the UPM CEO Jussi Pesonen.

FOPCU writes that they are concerned as to whether the lack of understanding and dialogue will be transferred to Uruguay, where dialogue between the parties is working well at the moment.

We in Uruguay, writes FOPCU President Washington Cayaffa, do not understand UPM's distancing itself from the good practises of social dialogue. It has been and continues to be useful in avoiding conflicts, which do not benefit any of the parties, he adds.

  1. UPM isolates itself more due to its labour market policy line
  2. Violence and harassment at workplaces affects women more often than men
  3. Union force companies to pay out hundreds of thousands of euros in compensation for dumped pay
  4. Unions begin to cut their membership dues
  5. Tax day reveals everyone’s income and tax data
  6. Technology industry collective bargaining can finally begin
  7. Collective bargaining for the technology industry is at a standstill: "We cannot buy a pig in a poke."
  8. Paper workers' deal with Stora Enso offers hope of calming stormy labour market autumn
  9. Metsä Group refuses to obey court verdict
  10. Union helps Afghan journalists to safety in Finland