“This trai­ning was an eye-opener” – Lear­ning the rules of Finnish working life

Debra Haroon, Olusola Adekoya and Marius-Ovidiu Bucur were among those who partici­pa­ted in “The rules of working life in English”, a course orga­ni­sed by the Industrial Union in Murikka-opisto on 1–3 June.

“I can see myself working as a shop steward in the future”, Haroon says.

”This trai­ning was an eye-opener. Anyt­hing is possible”, Adekoya says.

Orga­ni­sed for the first time, the course had 19 partici­pants from various sectors of the Industrial Union. Although the partici­pants’ origins were from across the globe, what they had in common was their desire to learn more about the rules of Finnish working life.

“This trai­ning gave us a suitcase full of tools for the future”, says Haroon.

”The course was well orga­ni­sed and also enter­tai­ning”, Bucur agrees.

The course consis­ted of, among other things, basic infor­ma­tion on emplo­y­ment cont­racts, collec­tive agree­ments and Finnish labour legislation.

“I can now see that I, too, have done things wrong because I have not been aware of things”, Bucur says.

TAPPING INTO TALENT

Haroon, who moved from Pakis­tan to Finland in 2014, is a teac­her by profes­sion but has not been able to find a perma­nent job in her own field. She is currently working in textile care at Lind­ström Oy in Turku.

“Language can become a barrier to finding a job”, Haroon says, hoping that emplo­yers would not waste talent because of language issues.

While people in Finland are gene­rally friendly, Haroon has also expe­rienced racism. After working for years without any union or unemplo­y­ment fund members­hip, she joined the Industrial Union when her emplo­yer mentio­ned it.

In Finland, every­day errands and tasks can be easily hand­led in English, but special termi­no­logy and the legis­la­tion can be difficult.

“My super­vi­sor starts talking in Finnish but conti­nues in English if it seems like I don’t unders­tand”, Bucur gives an example.

The union helps you, but you have to take respon­si­bi­lity for what you do.

Bucur moved to Finland from Roma­nia five years ago and is now working as a mecha­nic at Steelcomp Vaasa Oy.

At first, he was a member of the Gene­ral Unemplo­y­ment Fund YTK, thin­king that the YTK was also a trade union. After a problem at the workplace, he reali­sed how things really were and joined the Industrial Union.

“The union helps you, but you have to take respon­si­bi­lity for what you do”, Bucur says.

Bucur thinks that in Finland, the balance between busi­nes­ses and trade unions works well, whereas in Roma­nia, the labour market system is still a work in progress.

HOPING FOR MORE TRAINING

Adekoya moved to Finland from Nige­ria 14 years ago. He is currently working at the Uusi­kau­punki car factory of Valmet Auto­mo­tive Oy.

“I joined the union when I star­ted at Valmet. Someone advi­sed that it’s a good idea to be a member, because then you get secu­rity”, Adekoya says.

“When you are a member, you know that you are suppor­ted. The union cannot, howe­ver, change a wrong into a right. You have to be a good guy at work”, Adekoya continues.

While Adekoya has enjo­yed working at the car factory, he would like the work commu­nity to offer more oppor­tu­ni­ties for social inte­rac­tion. That way, infor­ma­tion would also spread more effec­ti­vely in the community.

The trio we inter­viewed contempla­ted the possi­bi­lity that in the future, English cour­ses could be aimed at all union members. In this pilot trai­ning, all partici­pants were of foreign background.

“It would be great to have inte­gra­ted program­mes where Finnish people and foreig­ners could learn toget­her,” Haroon says.

“Thank you to the union for this trai­ning. We want more of this”, Adekoya says.

GENERAL INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION

The English language course was held by Bargai­ning Specia­lists Riikka Vasama and Martti Paavi­lai­nen from the Industrial Union.

“We, Murikka-opisto and our Educa­tio­nal Services have iden­ti­fied a need for foreign-language trai­ning”, Vasama says.

The pilot course was based on an intro­duc­tory course for shop stewards.

“We went over gene­ral infor­ma­tion about working as a shop steward and how people can partici­pate in the union’s acti­vi­ties”, Vasama says.

The instruc­tors were deligh­ted by the large number of partici­pants and their active contribution.

“We had a lot of discus­sions on emplo­y­ment cont­racts, collec­tive agree­ments, Finnish legis­la­tion and how they are rela­ted”, Paavi­lai­nen says.

We went over gene­ral infor­ma­tion about working as a shop steward and how people can partici­pate in the union’s activities.

The partici­pants had many speci­fic ques­tions. It was not easy to give simple, clear-cut answers because the law and agree­ments do not always have exhaus­tive expla­na­tions for everyt­hing. As a last resort, solu­tions can be sought from the court.

“Hope­fully, we were able to send a message that some­ti­mes there is no one right answer to a situa­tion or problem”, Vasama says.

RIGHT TO TRAINING

The course was marke­ted directly by email to union members who had stated that their language was other than Finnish or Swedish. This meant 3,500 members in total.

“It was news to them that they are entit­led to receive trai­ning at the union’s expense in Murikka-opisto”, Vasama says.

The partici­pants gave both criticism and praise to their shop stewards. Without a common language, it can be difficult to advocate or promote things, but much also depends on attitudes.

“We must be able to support shop stewards who work in compa­nies that have immi­grants”, Paavi­lai­nen says.

The Industrial Union trai­nings are avai­lable in the Union’s elect­ro­nic course system Telmo at teollisuusliitto.etapahtuma.fi/kurssikalenteri