SAK calls for social partners to prepare common strategies in various industries

(Helsinki 17.11.2003 - Juhani Artto) In early November Finland's largest trade union confederation SAK submitted a new initiative to expand the scope of the Finnish consensus policy. SAK proposes that the labour market organisations in various industries should prepare common survival and growth strategies. The goals would be to bring the country into a phase of rapid economic growth, create new jobs and prevent mass redundancies and the loss of jobs to other countries.

"The strategies must ensure that Finland remains a good place for wage and salary earners to live and a good place for investors to operate their production and services," SAK observes. The organisation points out that Finland will need more rapid growth than the rest of the euro zone, as the ageing of the population structure is set to progress more steeply in Finland than elsewhere in Europe, and as the country's unemployment rate remains high:

"The loss of almost 25,000 industrial jobs in only one year and the modest increase in service jobs require a new kind of co-operation."

"As a small nation with a skilled labour force we can manage in global markets and in the enlarging EU, but this will demand a collective effort," SAK argues. The organisation stresses the need not only for technological progress, but also for social innovation: "Economic and social capital must not be allowed to diverge when innovating, and when improving competitiveness and productivity."

SAK aims for the conclusions of the programmes in various industries to be available in good time before the next round of collective bargaining, and before the government submits its proposal for the 2005 budget. Most of the current collective agreements are valid until February 2005.

Antti Piippo, the President of Elcoteq*, rejected the SAK initiative outright, reports the daily newspaper Etelä-Suomen Sanomat. Piippo admits that SAK's proposal is logical when viewed from the perspective of a consensus society, but he claims that current problems cannot be solved by outdated means:

"Enterprises working in the world market can no longer make decisions through common agreements with the Finnish trade union movement or any other interest group. Enterprises must decide for themselves, and Parliament will retain the authority and duty to decide how effectively Finland attracts jobs and what kind of jobs these are," Piippo explains.

*Elcoteq Network Corporation is the largest electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company in Europe, and a global leader in its field. It has 11,000 employees world-wide, with one thousand working in Finland where the company is based. In 1991 Elcoteq had a total of only 170 employees.

This article was first published on Trade Union News from Finland.