Merger of industrial unions to be postponed for a year

(Helsinki 7.5.2009 – Juhani Artto) The merger or amalgamation of several industrial unions will now take place on 1 January 2011, a year later than planned. The decision, reached unanimously, was made on Tuesday by the project management, which is made up of representatives from the unions involved in the amalgamation.

The extra year for merger preparations is needed to safeguard that the new union will be fully operational at the outset. In recent months, the original timetable for the merger began to look too tight, as the deep recession has caused a significant increase in the workload of union personnel and the unemployment funds.

The Electrical Workers’ Union will probably not participate in the merger. On Wednesday the majority group of the union decided, unanimously, to withdraw from the merger project.

Between May 11-20 the Railway Workers’ Union will hold a ballot on the new union merger.

Technically, the merger process will commence on 8-10 May 2009 with the Media Union adopting the name – TEAM -and the rules of the new union. And within the next few weeks the other unions will decide, in their congresses, to join the new union. The other unions are the Chemical Workers’ Union, the Metalworkers’ Union and the Wood and Allied Workers’ Union.

Also the unemployment funds managed by the existing unions will be amalgamated in May and June.