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Helsinki (11.02.2020 - Heikki Jokinen) Three major collective agreement conflicts have ended in agreement. Now there are collective agreements in the chemical and paper industry and for white-collar employees in the technology industry. The pay rise approximates 3.3 per cent generally and with 25 month agreements.

A new collective agreement for the chemical basic industry and oil, gas and petrochemical products industry and plastic and chemical product industry was agreed on 6 February. A strike was scheduled to begin only some days later.

The agreement is valid until the end of 2021 and will raise salaries by 3.3 per cent.

"The pay rise follows the general line in the export industry and the unpaid 24 hour extra annual working time will be deleted completely in the agreement", says Toni Laiho, Sector Director at the Industrial Union.

Helsinki (31.01.2020 - Heikki Jokinen) The long and complicated electricians strike took a step towards a solution. The Board of the Finnish Electrical Workers' Union accepted on 30 January company level agreements with Konecranes and Valmet Automotive.

The electricians strike began on 5 December and has continued ever since. Industrial action is still ongoing at seven companies, like the Meyer dockyard, the Boliden zink factory, SSAB steel factories and the Outokumpu steel factory.

The core issue is union member’s right to their own shop steward. In 2017, the Industrial Union and Technology Industries included the industry electricians terms of work in their collective agreement. The Finnish Electrical Workers' Union then lost  their own collective agreement in respect of some one thousand union members in the industry.

Helsinki (26.01.2020 – Heikki Jokinen) A new series of industrial action is set to begin from Monday 27 January onwards. The Industrial Union and Trade Union Pro have announced strikes in the mechanical forestry industry and energy sector. The paper industry is also heading towards a strike.

The strike in the chemical industry is, however, to be delayed. The Minister of Employment, Social Democrat Tuula Haatainen used her prerogative, under law, to delay the strike – set to begin on Monday 27 January – by two weeks. According to Minister Haatainen the strike could affect critical functions as it would close the Neste oil refinery. This could lead to serious disturbances in transport.

Minister Haatainen also used her prerogative to delay, by two weeks, the Trade Union Pro strike in respect of clerical employees in the technology sector.

Helsinki (10.01.2020 - Heikki Jokinen) The PM Sipilä right-wing Government drastic actions in the labour market some years ago casts a long and dark shadow today over this year’s collective bargaining round.

In 2016, the Government forced almost all trade unions to accept 24 unpaid annual extra working hours in their collective agreements. The alternative would have been harsh punishments in labour legislation cutting the rights and benefits of wage and salary earners.

At the same time unions were forced to accept a transfer of some labour social costs from companies to employees. According to calculations by the Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK this shift will benefit employers in 2017 - 2020 to the tune of 6.577 billion euro.

Helsinki (06.01.2020 – Heikki Jokinen) After several months of negotiations the new collective agreement for the technology industry was accepted on Saturday 4 January. It will bring a 3.3 per cent pay increase and the agreement is for 25 months.

The agreement covers some 93,000 employees and is considered important in paving the way for other collective agreements. Negotiations in almost all other sectors have been halted as the parties involved have been waiting to see what the pay rise in the export industry would be.

Riku Aalto, President of the Industrial Union views the disappearance of the 24 unpaid annual extra working hours as being the most important element in the new agreement. This punitive measure was agreed in 2016 under heavy pressure from the right-wing Government of PM Sipilä.

Helsinki (18.12.2019 - Heikki Jokinen) The long struggle concerning terms of work in the City of Turku owned food and janitorial services company Arkea were finally resolved at the beginning of December.

The company decided to return to their earlier collective agreement after a failed attempt to move one thousand employees to other agreements with major cuts in salaries and holidays.

JHL, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors hailed this as a victory. "The result is a clear victory for the Union. This was exactly the agreement we had put forward and offered in the first round of negotiations",says Maaret Laakso, Varsinais-Suomi Regional Chief of JHL to the Union magazine Motiivi.

IPS-Journal (Helsinki 10.12.2019) On Tuesday, 10 December 2019, Sanna Marin succeeded Antti Rinne to become Finland’s youngest Prime Minister.

What began as a dispute of the collective agreement of 700 parcel sorting offices workers at the state-owned postal service company Posti ended with the resignation of Antti Rinne, the Finnish Prime Minister, and his government. What happened?

The roots of the events go back to June 2017. The Centre Party Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and his right-wing government passed new legislation, opening the distribution of mail to private competition.

Helsinki (04.12.2019 - Heikki Jokinen) The Industrial Union has announced a strike from 9 to 11 December. It will cover 35,000 employees from the technology, chemical, wood product and special branches sectors.

Negotiations for a new collective agreement for technology industry faltered on the question of pay rises. Other issues in the agreement are more or less agreed upon.

Even the hard question of the 24 unpaid annual extra working hours, forced on employees by the right-wing Government of PM Sipilä in 2016, is now resolved. These hours will disappear in the technology sector agreement.

The National Conciliator made a proposal in respect of a pay rise, 1.6 per cent as part of a two years agreement.

Helsinki (29.11.2019 - Heikki Jokinen) A new collective agreement for postal workers ends the escalating strike wave.

The employer agreed to move 700 workers back to their previous collective agreement which is negotiated by the Finnish Post and Logistics Union PAU and employers association Palta. And they quickly reached a new collective agreement.

The core issue at the root of the dead-locked negotiations was the fate of 700 workers employed at postal service company Posti’s parcel sorting offices.

Helsinki (20.11.2019 - Heikki Jokinen) There is no solution yet in the postal services strike.

The National Conciliator Vuokko Piekkala put forward, on 18 November, a proposal for an agreement. Surprisingly, it completely failed to address the core issue of the conflict, the fate of the 700 state owned postal service company Posti employees which the employer unilaterally transferred to another company and another collective agreement.

"There was not a word about these employees in the National Conciliator’s proposal", says Heidi Nieminen, President of the Finnish Post and Logistics Union PAU.