Confederation of Finnish Industries brings trade union to Labour Court

The affiliated associations of the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) have summoned the Union of Salaried Employees (TU) to the labour court. According to EK’s Director of industrial relations, Seppo Riski, TU has become the cause of major disturbances in the Finnish labour market in recent times as a result of the various kinds of industrial action organised by the union.

The Union of Salaried Employees (Toimihenkilöunioni, TU), affiliated to the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees (Toimihenkilökeskusjärjestö, STTK), has during recent years been particularly active in organising different kinds of pressure actions and industrial actions including walkouts, measures of support for other organisations, sympathy strikes and strikes.

During the dispute in relation to the nurses’ settlement talks in the autumn of 2007, TU expressed its readiness to support strikes if required (FI0712029I). More recently, TU has organised retaliatory actions in protest against the closure of paper mills by the Finnish pulp and paper company Stora Enso (FI0711029I). TU union members working for the telecommunications companies Elisa and TeliaSonera also protested by refusing to repair phone or data connections for Stora Enso or for companies that purchase their products. In addition, employees belonging to TU who work for the alcoholic beverage company Altia went on strike, while workers employed by the defence company Patria had temporarily stopped work. About 500 employees participated in the support action in an effort to defer the closure of Stora Enso plants in the northern-most city of Kemijärvi and at Summa on the south coast of Finland near the Port of Hamina (FI0801049I).

TU has emphasised that the protest measures are targeted at Stora Enso and the government, not at the individual companies.

EK criticises TU for disturbances in labour market

As a result of the continued industrial action, the affiliated associations of the Confederation of Finnish Industries (Elinkeinoelämän keskusliitto, EK) have summoned TU to the labour court. According to EK’s Director of industrial relations, Seppo Riski, TU has been the cause of major disturbances in the Finnish labour market in recent times. Mr Riski stated that the trade union is moving from one industrial action and a threat of industrial action to another, thereby ignoring the labour market agreement system. Mr Riski also considers that TU’s recent pressure actions have been concentrated on five totally external and ‘innocent’ companies that have no part to play in the closure of the Stora Enso mills. Furthermore, Mr Riski highlighted that TU’s negotiation operations have been stumbling and that strike action is one measure that is easily taken up in seek of maximum publicity.

TU rejects critique of employers

The Chair of TU, Antti Rinne, has denied the criticism voiced by EK, stating that if the willingness to maintain jobs in Finland is classed as creating a disturbance in the labour market, TU will accept that freely. Mr Rinne also disproved EK’s statements regarding TU’s reluctance to negotiate, underlining that, during the last sectoral bargaining round in 2007, TU concluded a total number of 42 collective agreements; only one agreement has been achieved as a result of a short period of industrial action.

TU represents about 125,000 salaried employees. Members of the trade union work in specialist, supervisory and managerial positions in the economic, technical and information sectors of the Finnish economy, as well as in other salaried employee positions.

In total, TU negotiates up to 46 collective agreements in sectors such as industry, construction and services. In the industry and construction sectors, agreements cover all branches of activity while, in the services sectors, TU concludes collective agreements in the information technology, media and transport fields.

Pertti Jokivuori, Statistics Finland