Union campaign to promote voting activity sparks anger

In the run-up to the parliamentary election in March 2007, the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) invested €300,000 in a campaign to promote voting activity. However, the organisation was forced to cancel its planned political television advertising campaign, which was aimed at encouraging members of trade unions to vote in the parliamentary election. Entrepreneurs, in particular, were annoyed and offended by the content of the TV advertisements. The Confederation of Finnish Industries has accused SAK of contributing to party politics which affect the prominent position of labour market organisation.

The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (Suomen Ammattiliittojen Keskusjärjestö, SAK) has traditionally had a close relationship with the Social Democratic Party (Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue, SDP). In recent times, the organisation has shown concern about the opinion polls conducted last autumn, which revealed that the voting activity among blue-collar workers is at a significantly lower level than among white-collar workers. For this reason, SAK decided to invest €300,000 in a campaign to boost voting activity in the parliamentary election which took place on 18 March 2007.

Voting campaign cancelled

However, SAK had to cancel its planned political television advertising campaign aimed at encouraging members of trade unions to vote in the election. In the TV advertisements that were cancelled, SAK portrayed a greedy, corporate executive, played by popular actor Oiva Lohtander, stuffing food into his mouth, who is making fun of the fact that workers are not inclined to vote.

One reason for the decision to cancel the TV campaign, according to SAK Director Matti Tukiainen, was that the image of someone gorging himself with food was considered offensive, and the discussion that it provoked focused on the style of the advertising rather than on the original message of voter turnout. Before the campaign was cancelled, many political parties and also SDP candidates condemned the advertisement. Members of SDP feared that the SAK campaign would negatively affect the party’s results in the March elections. Many SDP representatives stated that, instead of encouraging anyone to vote, the campaign primarily provokes anger among voters. Moreover, they concluded that it goes against the idea of good behaviour and fails to promote ‘the league between labour and capital’.

Reaction to TV ads

The TV advertisements caused huge upset and anger among voters and political parties, in particular among entrepreneurs and representatives of the National Coalition Party (Kansallinen Kokoomus). They criticised SAK for trying to create artificial juxtaposition and confrontation, and stated that the advertisement was disrespectful to entrepreneurs. The Director of industrial relations at the Confederation of Finnish Industries (Elinkeinoelämän keskusliitto, EK), Seppo Riski, accused SAK of delving into party politics, thereby affecting the prominent position of labour market organisation. On the other hand, the President of SAK, Lauri Ihalainen, countered that SAK is lobbying openly, whereas EK is lobbying indirectly in the cabinets.

Election results

After all the votes were counted on 18 March, the outcome of the general election seemed to pave the way for a non-socialist government. The opposition party, the National Coalition Party, won the most votes, gaining an extra 10 seats and narrowly falling short of becoming the largest party in the country. The main government parties – the Centre Party (Suomen Keskusta) and SDP – both lost ground, with SDP losing eight seats and the Centre Party losing four seats. Despite the four seats lost, the Centre Party remains the largest party in the 200-member parliament with 23.1% representation and retaining 51 seats in total compared with the 22.3% representation and 50 seats of the National Coalition Party. SDP receives 45 seats in the new parliament with 21.4% of the votes.

The Chair of the National Coalition Party, Jyrki Katainen, stated after the election that the party would work to promote cooperation between all actors in the labour market. Speaking at the first party management meeting after the election, Mr Katainen said that the voters’ support for the party’s values would not result in labour market confrontation.

Pertti Jokivuori, Statistics Finland