Finns support tripartite labour market negotiation model

This can be gauged from a new survey commissioned by the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK. When asked whether you would vote, in the upcoming parliamentary elections on April 19th, for a candidate or party that would seek to weaken the existing tripartite system, 77 per cent answered no. Only 16 per cent said yes.

And a similar result was evident in another recent survey, commissioned by the union Akavas Special Branches. In their survey the question was again whether tripartite agreements are important in labour market negotiations

Of those who responded 32 per cent were in strong agreement and a further 43 per cent simply agreed, which makes 75 per cent in total. Only four per cent said they strongly disagree and 12 per cent said they disagree.

Both surveys were conducted by the TNS Gallup company.

SAK president Lauri Lyly says that people are surprisingly unanimous on the need for tripartite negotiations. "There is a clear basic message behind this."

In the SAK survey people were also asked what kind of issues they see as important in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

A total of 89 per cent saw social security as an important or very important issue, 86 per cent held the same for developing working life and welfare services.

However, immigration issues and possible Finnish NATO membership receive far more coverage in the media but these were not seen as important issues at all in comparison to those concerning working life and welfare.

People were also asked whether they would vote for a candidate or a party that supports tax cuts if the price for this would mean cuts in welfare services (59 per cent said no), supports more flexibility like cutting salaries or making dismissals easier (66 per cent said no), wants to cut the earnings-related unemployment benefit (67 per cent said no) or supports the right to hire employees for less pay and less favourable conditions than what are set down and agreed upon in collective agreements (74 per cent said no).

Heikki Jokinen