Women gaining more leadership positions in unions

In June 2001, for the first time, a woman was chosen to lead Finland's largest trade union, the municipal workers' KTV. Women have also gained more of a foothold recently in the higher echelons of some other unions. However, female union presidents are usually in charge of unions representing low-paid workers, whereas the unions representing the most strategically important export sectors are often led by men.

In a major breakthrough in the representation of women in the top leadership of Finnish trade unions, Tuire Santamäki-Vuori was elected on 5 June 2001 as the new president of the Trade Union for the Municipal Sector (Kunta-alan ammattiliitto, KTV) by the union's council. KTV is the largest union affiliated to the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (Suomen Ammattiliittojen Keskusjärjestö, SAK), with 210,000 members (over 10% of Finland's 1,988,000 wage earners). Ms Santamäki-Vuori had held the position of vice president of KTV since 1999, prior to which she worked at the Employee Research Centre in various capacities. In addition, Ms Santamäki-Vuori - who has a doctorate in economics and business administration - has conducted research and lectured at the Helsinki School of Economics, the University of Helsinki and the Academy of Finland.

The high academic achievements of the new president were considered by the members of the KTV union council to represents a major advantage for the future representation of KTV members' interests. The majority of the union's members are low-paid female workers, though until now its leaders have always been men. The new president was also highly regarded for the depth of her knowledge concerning the structures of the national economy and the problems of Finnish society as a whole. In her speech of acceptance to the union council, Ms Santamäki-Vuori drew attention to the ageing population, the increasing need for care, the impending shortage of workers and the level of municipal pay - all of which she sees as being problems of primary importance.

In May 2001, Ms Santamäki-Vuori was also elected to the chair of the council of SAK (FI0106190F). This position and the presidency of KTV make her the most powerful woman in the Finnish trade union movement.

Women leaders in SAK

Attempts to increase women's representation at the higher levels of leadership in SAK and its affiliates have been underway for a long time, but with meagre results so far. By and large, SAK can be said to have been something of a "male-dominated fortress" to date. While the central trade union organisations in Finland's neighbouring countries of Sweden, Norway and Estonia are each led by a woman, SAK at its recent congress elected Lauri Ihalainen as its president for the third time in a row, so the largest Finnish union confederation will continue to be held by a man for at least the next five years (FI0106190F).

There are only two notable woman leaders of SAK-affiliated unions: the chair of Service Unions United (Palvelualojen Ammattiliitto, PAM), Maj-Len Remahl (FI0101172N); and the chair of the Finnish Food Workers' Union (Suomen Elintarviketyöläisten Liitto, SEL), Ritva Savtschenko. They have now been joined by Ms Santamäki-Vuori at KTV, but the unions led by women are all made up largely of low-paid workers. The unions representing the most strategically important export sectors are led by men, often with a legal background.

What will change?

There is a perception in some quarters that women trade union leaders stress issues such as education, solidaristic pay policy, coping at work and improving the compatibility of family and work life. According to Ms Santamäki-Vuori, education and study have an important role in promoting equal opportunities for citizens and maintaining social cohesion and democratic values. She believes that educational policy should be directed more towards lifelong learning.

When unions are led by women, many believe that the way in which issues are handled will change. However, in an interview given after her election, Ms Santamäki-Vuori stated: "In society there are still quite ingrained images as to which tasks women are accepted in and which not. It would be good if men and women alike could operate and be equally respected in all possible tasks. My election seems to be a signal that this kind of thinking is gaining ground in the labour movement also, but I don't see gender as having any particular significance beyond that."

The new KTV president wants to stand by the welfare state and its basic services: "In Finland there has been great social mobility, because the welfare state with its public services has evened out opportunities and ensured that everyone, regardless of their own background, can make progress according to the will, talents and ambitions that they have. The public services have been threatened lately in many ways, and at the same time there is a threat that their equalising effect will be lost."

The deep economic depression at the beginning of the 1990s took a heavy toll on the public sector. The municipalities, as providers of basic services, have maybe suffered the most. KTV, the largest organisation in the female-dominated municipal sector, has recently renewed its demand that municipalities take immediate action to improve the welfare of their employees. According to Ms Santamäki-Vuori, the best and quickest way to achieve this is for the municipalities to hire more employees. One of the most problematic areas in Finland in this respect is Lapland (North Finland), which is suffering the greatest proportional decline in numbers of municipal personnel.

Commentary

New women leaders are starting to be an influential force in the Finnish trade union movement. Ms Santamäki-Vuori has become the most powerful woman in the whole movement, with her position as chair of the SAK council elevating her to the top of the organisation's hierarchy. She defends high taxation, a strong public sector and welfare services. As president of KTV, she must also promote a solidarity-based incomes policy: it is to the advantage of low-paid employees to achieve as extensive a national incomes policy agreement (FI0012170F) as possible - because if bargaining is left to the sector level, low-paid employees come off worst. In SAK, Ms Santamäki-Vuori will most likely to become the key advocate of a centralised incomes policy favouring low-paid employees. This approach may be difficult to pursue, now that some groups of highly-paid workers have begun to call solidarity-based pay policy into question - as illustrated by the recent doctors' strike (FI0103182F). However, the low-paid workers, through their formidable organisational power, have the potential to steer the future course of developments. (Juha Hietanen, Ministry of Labour)