Finland

A new collective agreement for postal workers ended the escalating strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike wave in late November 2019.

Posti unilaterally decided to transfer some employees to their subsidiary, Posti Palvelut, and in doing so, to another collective agreement of the Industrial Union industrial union A union whose membership is composed of workers in a particular industry, regardless of their profession or skill level.

See company union . According to PAU, this would have meant a cut, in practice, of up to 30 per cent of their pay.

The situation became deadlocked, as Posti refused to reverse their decision to transfer their parcel sorting staff to its subsidiary. Posti Palvelut is a member of the Finnish Media Federation, which refused to negotiate on a company-level agreement based on the PAU collective agreement for Posti Palvelut, despite the fact that their member company Posti Palvelut was in favour of this.

Solidarity strikes spread and gained momentum until Medialiitto agreed that the 700 workers in Posti parcel sorting offices can return to the PAU and the Palta collective agreement. This broke the deadlock, and the postal workers collective agreement was soon in place.

Riku Aalto, the president of the Industrial Union industrial union A union whose membership is composed of workers in a particular industry, regardless of their profession or skill level.

See company union , is satisfied with the resolution and says that his union was working actively for this agreement.

Several unions announced plans to take industrial action industrial action Any form of action taken by a group of workers, a union or an employer during an industrial dispute to gain concessions from the other party, e.g. a strike, go-slow or an overtime ban, or a lockout on the part of the employer. in support of the collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
process in the ongoing postal strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike in November 2019. The Finnish Post and Logistics Union PAU strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike in the state-owned postal service company Posti began on Monday 11 November.

The Service Union United PAM agreed to stop the handling of parcels and letters between 25 November and 8 December in some 750 Post-in-Shop services.

“PAM does not accept employer attempts to weaken the terms of employment for those working at Posti. We see it as vitally important that terms of employment and business are developed jointly,” said PAM president Annika Rönni-Sällinen.

The Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors, JHL and Railway Union RAU, agreed to suspend freight traffic on 19-20 November.

The Finnish Electrical Workers’ Union also planned solidarity action to support the PAU strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike as did the Transport Workers’ Union AKT. The Union Council said that the Posti plan to move some 700 employees to another collective agreement – so-called collective agreement shopping – is connected to a wider attack against the trade union movement.

According to the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff (AKAVA) and the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees (STTK), workers in the public sector face discrimination because of their union membership. For example, the Federation of Salaried Employees Pardia reported that in 2018 several shop stewards had been discriminated against (exclusion from pay raise or career advancement) after raising work-related issues with their employers.
The three Confederations further report that in the medical care sector, employers have attempted to prevent meetings of nurses at the workplace or to prohibit them from contacting their representatives during working time. They also report employers’ attempts to threaten or manipulate shop stewards.
Finally, SAK, AKAVA and STTK indicate that more and more union members prefer to pay their union membership fee directly to the union instead of applying the check-off check-off A system where union dues and fees are automatically deducted by the employer from the workers’ paychecks and then remitted to the respective union. agreement because of fear of anti-union discrimination anti-union discrimination Any practice that disadvantages a worker or a group of workers on grounds of their past, current or prospective trade union membership, their legitimate trade union activities, or their use of trade union services. Can constitute dismissal, transfer, demotion, harassment and the like.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework

or reprisal from their employers.

On 22-23 October 2018, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors (JHL), which is active in different sectors like cleaning, property maintenance and catering services, held a two-day strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike to protest the government’s planned legislation aimed at easing dismissal of employees. The “lay-off bill” as it has been dubbed, would particularly impact female workers who are already at a disadvantage regarding protection from collective dismissals. Indeed collective agreements applying in male-dominated sectors offer additional protection regarding lay-offs, compared to female-dominated sectors. According to JHL President Päivi Niemi-Laine: “The government is stubbornly pushing forward the bill, which would divide employees into two classes depending on how large their workplace is. The government cannot unilaterally dictate employment terms in Finland. The unions must stand up to the undermining of employment terms.”
The strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike gathered more than 10,000 JHL members. However, according to the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff (AKAVA) and the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees (STTK), employers in the sector resorted to agency workers to replace day-care personnel and disrupt the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike .