The organizing rate of immigrant labour is on the rise

According to the latest data, SAK's affiliated unions have 18,000 rank and file members who are of immigrant background. The organizing rate (trade union membership) of immigrant labour while still lower than among native Finns has, happily, clearly risen significantly during the 2000s. The unemployment rate among immigrants is three times higher than for employees born in Finland.

The SAK Congress heard this and other updated data and conclusions on immigrant labour issues on Monday afternoon in a speech by Eve Kyntäjä and Mikko Koskinen. Kyntäjä is SAK's expert on multicultural and immigrant labour issues, and Koskinen is an expert on education and training at the Service Union United PAM.

Both said that the most effective way to reach employees from immigrant backgrounds is to make the organizing efforts and solicit membership directly at workplaces and at various events. Foreign language brochures and net pages may be helpful but often fail to reach the bulk of immigrant labour. And once again this whole question draws attention to the central role of shop stewards.

Kyntäjä and Koskinen asked whether Finnish work communities are ready to accept immigrants as equal colleagues or only as targets of immigrant labour actions. They urged that immigrants be appreciated as employees who have skills, as colleagues and ... as ordinary people.

The duo pointed out that trade union organizations could play an important role in integrating immigrant labour into Finnish society. In recent weeks the debate on immigrant issues has focused on affirmative action. "Hate propaganda and urban legends have been spread about abundant benefits given to ethnic minorities. But the fact is that such benefits barely exist."

It is crucially important that people are not set against each other and that an atmosphere of hate, xenophobia and mistrust is not allowed to develop and fester. One of the main conditions for preventing this happening is that Finnish legislation and collective agreements are applied to all work done in Finland, the speakers concluded.

Photos from SAK's Congress (Flickr)