Archive

Helsinki (21.01.2008 - Juhani Artto) Trade unions, representing Stora Enso's employees, plan to increase pressure to save almost one thousand jobs at the company's Kemijärvi and Summa mills in Northern and South-Eastern Finland. The mandatory negotiations, between Stora Enso and the representatives of the workforce ended on Thursday 17 January without any break-through.

The paperworkers' union is strenuous in its demand that Stora Enso agree to sell the mills to investors who are ready to continue production at the two mills. According to the union there are potential buyers for both mills. The union is still counting on intervention by the Finnish government to persuade Stora Enso to recind its decision to close the two mills without due consideration to a transfer of ownership. 

The Finnish state holds almost 16 per cent of Stora Enso's shares and controls 35 per cent of the votes.

Helsinki (19.01.2008 - Juhani Artto) In recent years Finland has succeeded remarkably well in various international comparisons. Finland has belonged to the top scorers, for example, in competitiviness, in learning results of teenagers and in fighting corruption . Also the real incomes of wage and salary earners have, since mid 1990s, risen clearly stronger than in most other OECD countries.

Therefore it is no wonder that international media has, in the last few years, often referred to Finland in discussion on strenghts and weaknesses of various social models. This week offered new examples on such references.

Helsinki (03.01.2008 - Juhani Artto) Preliminary data from the 2007 working life barometer offers a surprise. The number of sick leave days continues, last year, to decrease despite the age structure of the labour force having got older. In 2005, the average number of sick leave days per employee was 9.3 and for 2007 it will be only 8.0 days. In 2006 the number was 8.9 days.

By international comparison this trend is exceptional, comments Elina Moisio, a special assistant at the ministry of labour.

The biggest surprise in the preliminary results is that the largest drop in the number of sick leave days was to be found amongst the oldest group of employees (over 54 years of age).

Helsinki (19.07.2007 - Juhani Artto) The merger project concerning six SAK unions will go ahead in August. The proposals put forward in April by Lauri Lyly, the director of SAK’s bargaining department, will form the basis for the preparatory work. Also, points raised by the different unions on Lyly’s proposals belong to the starting points.

The preparatory work will be conducted by nine task forces, which are soon to be elected for this purpose. These members will represent expertise in major functions of the unions.

The Paper Workers Union has decided to abstain from the merger talks. Instead of a full merger it seeks closer cooperation with the unions concerned. The union will also have a monitoring status in the merger process.

Helsinki (09.04.2007 - Juhani Artto) A full merger is the more promising option than either closer cooperation or a model somewhere in between these two options. Thus concludes Lauri Lyly, the director of SAK's bargaining department, who was in December 2006 commissioned by six industrial trade unions to map options for their future relations.

The six unions involved are (rank and file members in 2006)
The Chemical Workers' Union (47 600)
The Electrical Workers' Union (32 300)
The Media Union (24 200)
The Paper Workers' Union (47 100)
The Wood and Allied Workers' Union (45 600)
The Metalworkers' Union (165 500)

Lyly proposes that the new union (made up of a coming together of the above), TEAM, as Lyly calls it, would begin to function at the beginning of 2010.

Helsinki (05.04.2007 – Juhani Artto) Over EUR 700,000. - That’s the amount of money the Finnish Electrical workers’ union was able to secure to some 90 Polish electricians who had worked in Finland for only about EUR5 hourly wages.

The blockade and other means, applied by the union, compelled the Polish company MSB to agree on hourly wages from EUR12.30 to EUR14.00. The agreed wages are based on the collective agreement, applicable for electricians at construction sites.

Helsinki (10.02.2007 / edited 12.02.2007 - Juhani Artto) The Electrical workers’ union has succeeded in compelling the Polish company MSB to pay wages in Finland in line with Finnish collective agreements. This is good news for the 88 Polish electricians who worked at the construction site of the huge shopping complex, Ideapark, near Tampere. The centre was opened in December 2006.

The parties have agreed not to publicly disclose the total amount owed in arrears. However, in its press release, the Finnish union describes the arrears as ’large’. In Finland, an electrician usually earns about EUR14 per hour. This is almost three times more than the EUR5 per hour the Polish electricians were originally paid, as the current affairs programme Ajankohtainen kakkonen, in November 2006, claimed when exposing this serious dumping case.

Helsinki (29.12.2006 - Juhani Artto) Efforts to develop cooperation between six industrial trade unions have advanced to a new phase. In mid- December the unions chose SAK’s bargaining department head, Lauri Lyly, to examine the options for future relations between the six unions.

The main alternatives lie between a full merger and closer cooperation. Lyly has been asked to produce his analysis and findings by the end of March 2007. The unions did not in any way impose preconditions on Lyly’s challenge.

The six unions involved are
The Chemical Workers' Union
The Electrical Workers' Union
The Media Union
The Paper Workers' Union
The Wood and Allied Workers' Union
The Metalworkers’ Union

Helsinki (04.12.2006 / edited 06.12.2006 – Juhani Artto) MSB, a company based in Gdansk in Northern Poland, is seriously in breech of labour legislation rules in regard to its work sites in Finland in what amounts to dumping working conditions. Polish electricians have been paid only 5 hours per hour, a third of the hourly rate laid down by the Finnish collective agreement.

The latest case of dumping was exposed, a couple of weeks ago, by the current affairs programme Ajankohtainen kakkonen (www.yle.fi/a2) on TV2. The Electrical workers’ union asked the MSB for information about the working conditions of its electricians in Finland but the company failed to provide satisfactory explanations.

Helsinki (04.09.2006 - Juhani Artto) Before the year is out, five industrial trade unions may be on the way to far closer cooperation than has existed up until now. The unions, all of them SAK affiliates, are

The Chemical Workers' Union
The Electrical Workers' Union
The Media Union
The Paper Workers' Union
The Wood and Allied Workers' Union

According to the Electrical Workers' Union president Martti Alakoski the five unions may even assimilate all functions of organisation other than collective bargaining.