Collective agreements versus legislation from the perspective of values: The case of Finland (original) (raw)
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Finland: Trade unions struggling within a Ghent system
Trade Unions in the European Union, 2023
Since the year 2000, the Finnish trade union movement has witnessed four key trends: a significant fall in membership, the feminization of membership, a decline in strike activity and the growing assertiveness of employers’ organizations in pushing for the decentralization of collective bargaining. The most notable issue here is the fall in union membership. Finnish union membership peaked during the mid-1990s, when unemployment was high and the country was in a deep recession. The main reason for this – comparatively recent – success was the unemployment insurance system associated with unions, the so-called ‘Ghent system’. Simultaneously, the profiles of union members have changed since the 1990s, as many potential union members in core positions have opted to join an independent unemployment insurance fund rather than a union. Paradoxically, because of the universally binding nature of collective agreements, collective bargaining coverage has increased, at the same time as union membership has declined.
LABOR UNIONS IN FINLAND: A BRIEF HISTORIC OVERVIEW
The author examines the evolution of Finland labor unions, which have succeeded in the post-World War Two period in recruiting members from many different sectors. Today Finland has one of the highest union density rates in the world. Its unions provide collective bargaining agreements, workplace and industry consultation, labor dispute resolutions and unemployment payments (Ghent system). Considering the 30 years of success Finnish labor unions have enjoyed in penetrating up to 80 percent of Finnish workers, the recent decrease in membership is alarming and may be a result of the government’s recent unemployment insurance legislation. Finally, understanding the dynamics of the Finnish union success story could benefit labor unions in developing countries as they establish their own organization strategies.
Local Bargaining and Codetermination: Finnish Experience in Comparative Perspective
The decentralization of collective bargaining raises important issues, especially in the Nordic countries, where collective bargaining is centralized at industry level. These countries also have a ‘single channel’ of representation through trade union structures at both national and workplace levels, in contrast to much of Europe where there is a formal separation between works councils (as bodies for consultation and codetermination) and trade unions (as bodies for collective bargaining). This article reports research findings from Finland, where strong union branches have better capabilities in conducting the simultaneous tasks. If unions cannot actively develop the agenda for local bargaining, further experimentation in joint consultation can be expected, and this will provide a real test for the authority of local unions. The findings have broader implications for Nordic industrial relations.
The Nordic Model of Industrial Relations: comparing Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden
2023
The aim of this paper is to compare Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish industrial relations with respect to self-regulation versus state regulation (self-regulation being characteristic of the “Nordic model”), combined centralization and decentralization, union density (including the influence of the changed Ghent systems in three of the compared Nordic countries), and a socially segregated union structure. Special attention is paid to industry norms in collective bargaining and to the new 2022 Swedish basic agreement regarding security (skills development), transition, and employment protection.
The Restructuring of Finnish Trade Unions -the Growing Importance of Women 1
Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 2021
The membership profile of Finnish trade unions has changed from male-dominated industrial workers to female-dominated service and public sector workers who are more highly educated. The Finnish labour market is strongly divided into female and male occupations and sectors, and these intersectional differences play an important part in the differentiation of developmental paths. The erosion of membership is mainly due to the rapid growth of the independent unemployment fund (YTK) competing with unemployment funds associated with trade unions. YTK has been much more successful in recruiting private sector male workers than women. Men's decisions not to join the union are related to the shift in the motivation to unionise from social custom to instrumental reasons. Along with the gender majority shift, union identification has changed, and unions need to carry out 'identity work' to attain members. The shift in gender proportions has also had consequences for the collective bargaining system.
Restructuring of Finnish Trade Unions – the Growing Importance of Women
Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies
The membership profile of Finnish trade unions has changed from male-dominated industrial workers to female-dominated service and public sector workers who are more highly educated. The Finnish labour market is strongly divided into female and male occupations and sectors, and these intersectional differences play an important part in the differentiation of developmental paths. The erosion of membership is mainly due to the rapid growth of the independent unemployment fund (YTK) competing with unemployment funds associated with trade unions. YTK has been much more successful in recruiting private sector male workers than women. Men’s decisions not to join the union are related to the shift in the motivation to unionise from social custom to instrumental reasons. Along with the gender majority shift, union identification has changed, and unions need to carry out ‘identity work’ to attain members. The shift in gender proportions has also had consequences for the collective bargaining ...
New dynamics of division of work and employment relations are emerging in the Nordic labour market. The use of flexi-time, agency and posted workers, typically of foreign origin, is becoming more widespread. Simultaneously, certain parts of manufacturing and construction processes are being standardised and relocated abroad. The present analysis reveals that there is a new regime emerging, intertwined with the international disintegration of production, which relies upon the inequality of different parts of the labour process and ‘spaces of exception’ and is rendered possible by EU provisions of free movement of services. Hence, the Finnish – and the Nordic – consensual labour market model is under attack. It is too early, however, to draw conclusions on whether Finland has turned into a more ‘free-market’ model. The crucial question is the extent to which negotiations on labour relations remain in the grasp of labour unions in the coming years.
2021
This article analyses the Finnish employers’ policy preferences, strategies and success in the industrial democracy (ID) reform process of the 1960s–1970s. The article establishes the employers’ hierarchy of preferences, evaluates how successful they were in realising their objectives, and discusses the strategic choices and contextual factors behind their successes and losses. The article engages with scholarly discussions about interest groups’ policy preferences and success and emphasises the multifaceted nature and the temporal dimension of success. A sufficiently long timeframe is often necessary in order to assess the eventual winners and losers of a policy process, as well as the degrees of success attained by actors.
FINLAND: Positive union engagement with CSR
Trade unions have a long history in Finland, beginning with the first national wage agreement between employers and employees at the beginning of the 1900s. However, collective agreements remained rare until the Second World War. After that the Finnish political and economic system began to change, and representatives of labour were given a greater say in corporate decision-making, which gave more power to the unions and their supporters (Lamberg and Laurila 2005). However, it was not until the 1960s that the employers’ attitudes really changed and management withdrew from its paternalistic involvement (Koivuniemi 2000). Since then the trade unions have been key players in Finnish public life, with institutionalized patterns of interaction as well as mandatory and codified rights. Nowadays there is general acceptance of the principle of collective regulation of employment negotiated co-operatively between employees and employers to protect the weaker party (employees). Individual em...