Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL is born

Merger creates Finland's largest trade union

(Helsinki 22.11.2005 &#;8211 Juhani Artto) Final steps of establishing the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL are taken today and tomorrow in Helsinki. The merger of six unions creates Finland's largest trade union. JHL consists of almost 230,000 wage earners.

The merging unions are the Trade Union for the Municipal Sector (KTV), the Finnish National Union of State Employees and Special Services (VAL), the Joint Organisation of State Employees (VTY), the Coastguard Union (MVL), the Finnish Customs Officers’ Union, and the Finnish Prison Officers’ Union (VVL). They all are members of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, SAK.

Three of the six merging organisations will join the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL as organisational members. This means that the Coastguard Union, the Customs Officers’ Union and the Prison Officers’ Union will be separate unions within JHL.

The administrative bodies of the new union were appointed today. They will carry on until autumn 2006 when the first Union Council election will be held. The new president of JHL is Tuire Santamäki-Vuori, former president of KTV.

The strategy of the JHL will be approved on the closing day of the merger meeting.

On the eve of the meeting, the participating unions summarised the needs for the merger as follows. "Changes in the public sector operating environment and working life, and new service provision models require public sector trade unions to reorganise on a broad front".

"The responsibilities in public service provision are becoming diffuse, and a networked model of service provision is becoming more common. The number of partnership projects between the public and the private sector is increasing and the network formed by private producers is becoming wider. Services financed through taxes are subject to competitive bidding, and they are increasingly bought from the private sector", the unions analysed.

JHL's new website is found at www.jhl.fi.

This report is based on an article on Trade Union News in Finland.