Finnish Strike Fever Starts Escalating
The longer I live in Finland,the more it is beginning to resemble England during the 1980`s.Strike fever or General Workers strike fever period .The Trade Union`s were rampant in the British 1970`s-1980`s,either searching for better pay or more secure work conditions.Remembering as a young man the days when British Rail and The UK Coal Miners led by Arthur Scargill seemed to be actually making more money being on strike than working.The harsh facts turned out to be a big loss for many thousands if not millions of British people.Well The Finnish Transport Union(AKT) seems now, intent to disrupt Finland
Finland Strike Fever Season
Last week the lorries drivers were on strike,meaning there was a potential risk of food shortages as shop deliveries were to be terminated,This included fuel deliveries to the petrol pumps.Well it had no effect on me personally ass I do not drive.It went to show though how such a strike could and would potentially cripple Finland and cause severe hardship for the Finnish People at large.Not to mention the damage done to the Finnish Economy.
Thankfully the strike by the Finnish Transport Workers Union was bought to an end early on.Then a few days proceeding the first strike,the Stevedores or Dockers go on strike.Strike Fever or not.This conflict was again instigated by the now becoming famous Finnish Transport Workers Union
The Finnish Transport Workers Union acting for better severance pay and job security for Dockers is scheduled to meet again tomorrow,Tuesday 9 March with the aim of negotiating an agreement and end to this strike.As was said in Britain during the strike epidemic of the 1970`s-80`s,”The Unions have to much power and money”!
About 3000 Dockers went on strike Thursday 4 March once again crippling Finland Foreign Trade and no doubt causing hardship for cruise line travelers.
Now this Thursday unless the Finnish Transport Workers Union agree to a settlement handed to them by Esa Lonka,The Finnish Government Labour Market conciliator the Finnish Logistics workers,about 1000 strong will go on strike,again under the umbrella of The Finnish Transport Workers Union.All this strike fever reminds me of Arthur Scargill from the UK
Arthur Scargill style Strike Fever Comesto Finland
Arthur Scargill
The British Coalminers strike led by Arthur Scargill in 1984-5 was at the beginning for a good and worthy cause.The British Miners were only trying to stop the closure of coal pits by the then Prime Minister of Britain,Margaret Thatcher.The Miners strike was to lead in the ultimate closure of hundreds of British Coal Fields.The Miners strike was to be the scene for some of the most violent and friend versus friend conflicts to be seen in any British industrial dispute.
Lives were lost during the intense flair up between the Miners and the British Government,Margaret Thatcher,The point is relevant as at the beginning of the Miners strike,the National Coal Board had close to 170 pits and a workforce of188,000.Now today there are only a dozen coal mines operational and they are deep pits.Membership has shrunk to approximately 4,000.For all Arthur Scargill`s valiant efforts the miners were to loose their jobs in the end,but look at the cost to individuals and country?
A lesson from the past for Finnish Strikers
Whilst Trade Unions were and are set up to protect workers rights and conditions.It is worth considering the old adage,”Don’t shoot yourself in the foot”Even though the Finnish Transport Workers Union means good for it`s members,I often wonder whether they have even bothered to hold ballots amongst their members.This was ultimately the downfall ofArthur Scargill and British Miners.Scargill held no pit head ballots.It remains to be seen whether the heads of the Finnish Transport Workers Union are in fact flogging a dead horse and will ultimately cause more damage to Finland growth by running this strike fever craze
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Are you experiencing it yet?
dance schools gold coast » Currently there are no strikes I am aware of.
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I’m a little late reading/commenting this as I just started reading your blog.
The problem with the strikes is not with the workers or their unions. AKT tends to be greedy and obnoxious, but their demands weren’t unreasonable. The blame lies in EK, Elinkeinoelämän keskusliitto, (you translate and explain that). Since it’s inception, it has unilaterally blocked all attempts to negotiate TuPo (again, if you don’t mind..), a deal which has been the main reason for the incredibly low amount of strikes in this country and in some amount contributed to equality and unity among the people and sanity wrt. wages. Not only that, but EK has actively pursued to significantly worsen the working conditions and rights (thus disrupting the egalitarian ideals of the society for little or no real financial gain) and picked and prolonged fights up to the point that the’ve been absolutely detrimental in financially and PR-wise for the employers it supposedly represents.
Frankly, I think their political and social agenda is very fascist. It resembles the behaviour of employers in times around the globe when the workers’ unions were considered illegal. They seem to be pursuing a fairly right-wing society where workers’ unions are crippled and employers have control over employees’ lives, which is a significant departure from the Finnish and Scandinavian tradition of co-operation and togetherness. I suppose the financial structure of the society is starting to support an elite class and people in positions of power are finally realizing it and have the necessary lack of conscience to pursue it.
(There is a theory – don’t know how credible or endorsed by whom – that the historical lack of nobility/serfdom/etc. could simply be because the soil wasn’t fertile enough to support such unproductive people in required quantities. A person ruling without explicit consent of the subjects requires quite an amount of muscle to enforce the rule and a pyramid of power is required for the ruling class to not kill each other off. Those people end up constituting a fairly large portion of the population and all of them are very much unproductive in terms of food production i.e. survival.)
Thanks for your informative and enlightening comment.My feelings are still the same,in that strikes have never realyy benefited any one or a countries GDP.
We all licve with lowered wages or benefits due to the world economic downturn.Surely the way forward is to work together to to make Finland richer.Just to mention the center party has jujst allowed the investment of millions in their plans to build 2 new nuclear reactors.Comming from the UK,I see the mess it has caused for many citizens and the landscape,not to mention the nuclear waste issue
Greg
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