Shop steward Pentti Mäkinen expects thorough and full-going discussion on SAK's goals

"I hope that participants will have a broad-based and thorough discussion on SAK's goals for the next few years. And following intense debate, serious decisions must be taken to tackle current problems affecting wage and salary earners." This is how Pentti Mäkinen, one of the most experienced delegates at the SAK 18th Congress, described his expectations on Monday morning when entering the Tampere Hall, the venue of the congress.

He works full-time as the leading shop steward at the Metso Rautpohja factory in Jyväskylä, in Central Finland. The factory produces top quality paper machines for the global market. And it is a good place to observe and monitor where working life is heading. This is the second time Mäkinen represents the Metalworkers' Union at the SAK Congress, which are held once every five years.

Mäkinen is at pains to stress that the Congress must find ways to defend employee rights and living standards in all industries, not only in the core industries, such as paper machine production. "Agreements that broadly unite all those along the social strata spectrum are urgently needed. At this Congress, I sincerely hope we make progress in developing our set of central goals."

"Unions must be given and guaranteed the right to take class action lawsuits, and mandatory responsibility for companies in respect of the behaviour and practices of their subcontractors' has to be extended to make companies who operate in this way truly accountable. The grey or black economy must be tackled with greater zeal than it has up until now."

"In these kind of matters we have to act with unity and according to a common union agenda", Mäkinen says and adds: "The retirement age should not be raised by legislative reforms but by improving wage and salary earners' well-being at work - and of course the question of vocational skills is always important for us unionists."

Photos from SAK's Congress (Flickr)