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24 October, 2011
The strike by 32,000 Finnish metalworkers that began on 21 October could end tomorrow following a new proposal presented by National Conciliator Esa Lonka last night, 23 October. ICEM affiliate Ammattiliitto Pro, the trade union of salaried workers in Finland, and Metalliliitto, the country’s Metalworkers’ Union, will consider the proposal later today in separate meetings.
The two unions began a first wave of strike actions last Friday against 45 metal and engineering companies that was to run until 7 November, with a second wave of strikes against another 35 firms to begin on that day.
Lonka’s new proposal addresses the unions concerns on a wage package over the next two years, while Finland’s government is expected to legislate the other key issue in the dispute – a three-day annual training and education leave in which employers sought to use its own discretionary control.
Metalliliitto’s 38-member Union Council will consider the proposal at 16h today in Helsinki, while Ammattiliitto Pro’s Executive Committee will meet at 17h to take up the government conciliator’s proposal. If both bodies accept, the 32,000 workers – 25,000 metalworkers and 7,000 represented by Ammattiliitto Pro – will be back to work tomorrow, 25 October.
The major discord was over a 4.3% wage increase for two years, an amount Finnish social partners agreed to on 13 October. Metal and technical employers, under the auspices of the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries, or Teknologiateollisuus, sought to structure that pay rise whereby many metalworkers and white-collar workers would not get the full amount. The new proposal given by Lonka last night, 23 October, proposes that it be granted across the board to all 200,000 workers in the country’s metal and engineering sector.
Last week’s industrial actions also included an overtime ban across all employers in those industrial sectors. An ICEM report on the start of the strike from last week can be found here.