As detailed in a previous article (see article n°9954), the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) decided unilaterally – with the backing of the country’s government – to scrap the existing tripartite negotiation model. That process began with a salary framework being set out on a national level, and covering other issues surrounding working conditions, before negotiations would take place on a branch level and at a company level. The aim of the decision to alter this model was to adopt an approach similar to that of Sweden, where negotiations take place in exporting industries and set the tone for other sectors. However the partial failure to merge the industrial unions does not bode well for negotiations. It conjures up memories of 2007, when employers again called the central negotiation model into question, leading to a year of unprecedented social dispute in the country.
The first consequence on the EK’s announcement was a decision by the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) to adopt a new strategy, in a bid limit the power of the employers’ confederation, to the unions’ advantage. As such, the heads of trade unions from exporting industries – the industry union TEAM, the union for workers in the metal and technology sectors Metalliliitto, the paper workers’ union Paperiliitto and the union of wood and forestry workers Puuliitto – decided in Decem
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