Industrial Union declares new political strikes – one-day walkouts planned everywhere in Finland
Today on 28 March, the Industrial Union made an announcement of nationwide one-day political strikes. The strikes are in addition to the one-week strike previously announced in various industries. The walk-outs target a number of industries and will take place on 5 April 2024.
The strikes are part of SAK’s Serious Grounds campaign. The day-long strikes show support for the 7,000 strikers who are already on strike for the third week running. These industrial actions are being taken against cuts and impairments to the terms of employment and to demand the Government of Petteri Orpo to negotiate with the employee side.
President of the Industrial Union Riku Aalto stresses that employees now have an exceptional number of reasons to protest.
“The Government has taken an exceptionally hard line towards workers. These cuts will increase working-class poverty by 100 000 adults and 17 000 children. It does not matter whether or not you are employed. These cuts will hit all workers equally. The Government’s ‘worker policy’ is so ruthless that it will impoverish employed workers too.”
“This ‘taxi reform’ of the labour market, that is the move to local agreements, will flood workplaces with unfair local agreements and our collective agreements, universally binding until now, will become irrelevant. In plain language, this means that the worker’s pay will decrease and working hours increase as minimum terms of employment are gradually done away with.”
“Industrial Union members defend the Nordic labour market model and its fundamental principles of negotiating and agreeing on matters. The compromise proposals offered by SAK would bring a touch of fairness and justice to the Government’s policies. At the same time, they would put an end to the strikes and return industrial peace”, says Riku Aalto.
The day-long walk-out will include 56 sites and approximately 4,300 industrial workers. The strikes do not extend to emergency work or to work that is necessary for the protection of life and health.
More detailed information about the establishments affected by the strikes is available here.
Additional information
Riku Aalto, Chairman (interviews), tel. +358 (0)40 071 1072.
Vesa Aallosvirta, Organisational Manager (enquiries related to industrial action and shop stewards), tel. +358 (0)40 820 9026.