Archive

(Riga 30.03.2000 - Juhani Artto) Latvia, one of the three Baltic countries to the south of Finland, began official membership negotiations with the EU in February. The other two Baltic countries, Estonia and Lithuania, are also officially negotiating on membership.

While the more optimistic Latvian ministers claim that the negotiations will be completed by 2003, most experts believe that a longer period will be needed.

In any case, it is highly probable that labour, goods and capital will cross the Gulf of Finland freely in the not-too-distant future. This means that Finnish employees have a special interest in the evolution of the labour market in the Baltic States.

(05.03.2000 - Juhani Artto) Many trade union activists and leaders around the world have heard about, or know what SASK is. SASK is the Finnish language abbreviation of the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland.

What is the role of this organisation in Finland and globally?

"The international trade union movement coordinates work to increase expertise, improve networking and raise the organising rate of trade unions in the developing countries", explains SASK Director Hannu Ohvo. "SASK is the tool, or service centre, of the Finnish trade union movement in this endeavour."

(24.02.2000 - Juhani Artto) "International organisations must increase the pressure against States which approve of unethical acts such as child labour, environmental destruction or repression of the trade union movement."

Asked to guess, who published this demand last year, few Finns would immediately consider the bishops of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland. This, however, is the right answer. The statement is part of the booklet "Towards the Common Good", in which the bishops express their worries about current antisocial trends in the world - Finland included.

The booklet is a direct attack against the antisocial character of the neo-liberal policies determining the present model of globalisation. The text strongly defends the welfare State created in the Nordic countries in the latter half of the 20th century and warns of the threats which this system nowadays faces.

(12.02.2000 - Juhani Artto) Shipping companies in Finland pay higher than average taxes for a European Union Member State. Employment-related social security contributions are also higher than those of competitor countries in Europe.

The country's leading shipping companies have long threatened to outflag their ships if the government failed to lower costs to the European Union level. In January two major companies, Finnlines and Fortum, announced their intention to outflag 18 ships. If implemented, the plan would mean axing the jobs of several hundred Finnish seamen.

The companies, Seamen's union and Ministry of Transport agree on the need to lower costs by reducing the impact of taxation and social security contributions. In several European Union Member States the shipping companies pay virtually no tax at all and social security contributions are borne by the State.

(09.02.2000 - Juhani Artto) Aker Finnyards is to get a seven million euro subsidy for its business deal with a Greek shipping company. Despite the reluctance of Finnish Trade and Industry minister Erkki Tuomioja, the government's economic task force decided in favour of a subsidy.

The opposite decision would have threatened hundreds of jobs in the western Finnish town of Rauma. Transport minister Olli-Pekka Heinonen - who lives in the town - and Metalworkers' Union Secretary Erik Lindfors lobbied publicly for the subsidy which amounts to eight per cent of the total value of the deal.

Helsinki (09.02.2000 - Juhani Artto) The 16 million-member Union Network International (UNI) began its work on 1 January 2000. UNI joins together some 800 affiliated member unions with 16 million members in 136 countries.

The thirteen Finnish unions in UNI, representing more than half a million organised workers and salaried staff, emphasise the need to strengthen global solidarity. The spirit of solidarity in Finland is clear: the problems of employees in one country are the concern of all UNI organisations all over the world.

The organising rate in Finland is well over 80 per cent and there is a long tradition of a strong trade union presence. This means that the Finns do not expect to be mainly at the receiving end within UNI, but to play the role of giving support to others. Despite this, however, there are increasingly many examples of how the globalisation of business enterprises also constitutes a threat to workers in Finland in the industries covered by UNI.

(29.01.2000 - Juhani Artto) The Metalworker and Construction Worker Unions were the first to conclude collective agreements in the current negotiating round. These one-year agreements are valid until 31 January 2001.

The cost of the agreements is 3.1 per cent. In mid-January the government eased the path to these settlements by cutting income tax by an amount corresponding to a 1.0 per cent rise in real incomes.

With inflation expectations running at around 2.0 per cent or less, these two agreements will mean a slight increase in the real incomes of workers.

(08.01.2000 - Juhani Artto) Aker Finnyards, the number two shipbuilding company in Finland, announced on 7 January that it had won a tender for a passenger car ferry worth almost FIM one billion (EUR 160 million, USD 170 million). However, the winning tender assumes a government subsidy and does not consider official rejection of appeals to continue with subsidies.

Finland's trade and industry minister Erkki Tuomioja, in his immediate response, reminded Aker Finnyards that no money has been budgeted for shipbuilding industry subsidies and that it seems clear that none is likely to be allocated.

Tuomioja was astonished at the behaviour of Aker Finnyards as the company was well advised concerning the decision to abandon the subsidy policy.

Aker Finnyards has about 1,100 employees. The order from the Greek shipping company G A Ferries would provide employment to its workforce for one year.

Helsinki (08.01.2000 - Juhani Artto) There was good news to usher in the new millennium for the Finnish shipbuilding industry. Masa-Yards, the leading shipbuilding company in Finland, won an order for a Spirit-class luxury cruise liner worth about FIM 2,000 million (EUR 330 million, USD 350 million). This matches jobs for 5,000 employees for one year.

In spite of this, the future of the industry in Finland and the other EU Member States is under serious threat. The global market share of the EU shipbuilding industry has fallen below 20 per cent. Ten years ago it was about 30 per cent.

The industry blames the loss on South Korea's aggressive expansion campaign, which the EU and European companies claim to be based on unfair subsidies. According to European sources, the South Koreans have reduced their prices below the level of material costs alone in the worst tenders.

Helsinki (09.12.1999 - Juhani Artto) The 19,000-member Textile and Garment Workers' Union in Finland is the first European trade union in this industry to introduce a code of conduct in its collective agreement. This is an important step forward in enforcing the 1997 agreement reached by the industry's European labour market partners Euratex and ETUC:TCL.

In the 1997 agreement the partners called on their members actively to encourage enterprises and workers in the European textile and clothing industry to comply with the following principles in ILO Conventions:

• Forced labour, slave labour and prison labour are to be prohibited (Conventions 29 and 105).
• The right of workers to form and join a trade union, as well as the right of employers to organise, shall be recognised. Employers and workers may negotiate freely and independently (Conventions 87 and 98).
• Child labour shall be forbidden. Children under 15 or younger than the age of completion of compulsory schooling in the countries concerned shall not be admitted to work (Convention 138).
• Workers shall be employed on the basis of their ability to work and not on the basis of their race, individual characteristics, creed, political opinion or social origin (Convention 111).