What if there were no trade unions?

Unio­ni­sa­tion into trade unions is a human right.

12.2.2020

“It’s difficult to imagine that an emplo­yer would fix glaring injus­tices or make unsafe work safe just for the sake of it. Someone must demand these things for them to become a reality. People must unio­nise them­sel­ves into trade unions and defend their rights collec­ti­vely,” says Tarja Valto­nen.

Valto­nen works as an Inter­na­tio­nal Opera­tions Officer at the Trade Union Soli­da­rity Centre of Finland (SASK). SASK is suppor­ted by the Industrial Union. SASK is a “human rights orga­ni­sa­tion of the working life” with 35 ongoing projects in eight countries.

In the latest union assembly, the Industrial Union deci­ded to reserve one per cent of its members­hip fees to support unions figh­ting in poorer count­ries. Why? This is an easy ques­tion for Valto­nen to answer.

“First of all, it’s fair. Human rights, such as the right of associa­tion, the right to strike and the right to bargain collec­ti­vely, belong to everyone.”

“Secondly, bad prac­tices in the working life tend to spread from one country to anot­her faster than good ones.”

“Thirdly, if workers had decent working condi­tions everyw­here, compa­nies would not be so temp­ted to move their facto­ries out of Finland in search of chea­per labour. There would no longer exist so many safe havens for the compa­nies who behave the worst,” Valto­nen highlights.

The trade union move­ment also serves as a watch­dog for the Finnish compa­nies who try to trample on workers’ rights elsewhere.

“If workers do not have funda­men­tal rights or the right to nego­tiate their terms of emplo­y­ment toget­her, anyone can see what that leads to. Prolon­ged days, illnes­ses, inju­ries and, at worst, deaths,” Valto­nen says.

www.sask.fi

ILLUSTRATION TUOMAS IKONEN