Finnish President conveys official greetings to SAK Congress

News from the 17th SAK Congress

In her official greeting to the SAK Congress Finnish President Tarja Halonen expressed her gratitude to the trade union movement for fostering public participation and thereby strengthening democracy. 2006 marks the centenary of universal suffrage and parliamentary democracy in Finland.

&#;8220Each generation has to be recruited for the ongoing process of social reform. The challenge for the trade union movement nowadays is to reassure young people in casual and irregular employment that co-operation and collective action are still the best way of ensuring progress,” President Halonen declared.

She felt that Finland should continue to hold fast to the strengths of its consensus society in order to benefit from the opportunities offered by globalisation.

President Halonen is convinced that Finland’s success in international competition has largely been based on social dialogue between the government and both sides of industry. She explained that this system is now the object of very considerable interest throughout the world.

President Halonen said that the benefits and drawbacks of globalisation are now unevenly divided both within and between countries.

“We need more co-operation and more effective co-operation to ensure that proper consideration is given to the needs of human beings and our common environment. Globalisation must be democratised and democracy must be globalised,” President Halonen insisted.