Four corners­tones

There are four corners­tones in the strategy: labour market activity, organi­sa­tional strength, influencing society and enablers. In practical terms, what do these mean?

Labour market activity is a compre­hen­sive package – all union emplo­yees are engaged in one way or another with this. The hard core of this activity is to improve members’ terms and condi­tions of work.

The most visible part of labour market activity is collec­tive bargai­ning but resol­ving disputes at the workplaces is a very vital part of this, too.

– Labour market activity also involves training, provi­ding infor­ma­tion and impro­ving the position of shop stewards at workplaces, says the Industrial Union labour market director Jyrki Virtanen.

The Finnish labour market is to a large extent based on the generally binding collec­tive agree­ments. This means that a collec­tive agree­ment covers all compa­nies in a certain branch when about a half of the emplo­yees are working in compa­nies that are members of the emplo­yers’ associa­tion who have signed up to the agreement.

Currently, as some emplo­yers opt to pull out of the national level agree­ments, the problems with the system are becoming increa­singly visible. In response the Industrial Union is exami­ning new initia­tives and strategies.

Organi­sa­tional strength means conso­li­da­tion, creating strong joint power and impro­ving members’ position in the labour market.

The Industrial Union has members in 11,000 workplaces across the country. This provides organi­sa­tional strength but requires constant and deter­mined effort on the part of the union.

Organi­sa­tional strength means conso­li­da­tion, creating strong joint power and impro­ving members’ position in the labour market. Recrui­ting new members and active work in workplaces are keys to all this.

There are many ways and areas where terms of work can be improved by legis­la­tion. This work is done by influencing society.

For the parlia­men­tary elections in April 2023 the union has its own goals for the next Govern­ment Programme. These include updating legis­la­tion concer­ning the generally binding collec­tive agreements.

Among other goals are guaran­teeing purcha­sing power, comba­ting labour market crimi­na­lity, impro­ving the situa­tion of shop stewards and enhancing condi­tions of industrial work.

Enablers are the things that make the union operate smoothly: resources, members’ services and communication.The union’s own educa­tional insti­tute Murikka will continue to offer a broad selec­tion of courses. Other training will be compre­hen­sive, too, both online and face to face.

All this needs money. Membership dues are not enough to cover all union work, but income from invest­ments helps to balance the budget.