Labor struggles | IS: Toivo Sukari understands strikers

Furniture store chain Owner of Masku and Ideapark shopping centers Toivo Sukari sympathizes with the workers who were on a political strike this week.

Sukari tells Ilta-Sanomthat “of course the people have the right to express their opinion”, and he does not condemn strikes.

The businessman is worried about how the prime minister Petteri Orpon (kok) the weakening of social benefits and changes in the labor market planned by the government will affect lower-paid Finns.

According to Sukar, “it is in everyone's interest” that low-wage earners have the purchasing power to be able to go to shops and buy goods.

Sukari complains about the dispute between the government and the trade union movement and hopes that employers and employees would start negotiating and reach an agreement quickly.

According to him, it would be “better to get a thin agreement than an even fatter dispute”.

“Yes, a golden mean should be found here. You shouldn't think that employers and employees are in different boats,” Sukari tells IS.

Roughly tens of thousands of workers have been on political strikes on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It has been one of the largest political strikes in Finnish history.

The strikes are protesting the changes in working life regulations and the weakening of social security that are being prepared by Orpo's government.

Teollisuusliitto and trade union Pro filed notices of new broad political strikes on Friday. They would be implemented in mid-February.

Its business activities and in addition to his media publicity, Toivo Sukari is known for the election money scandal that happened about 15 years ago.

Sukari and a few other well-known businessmen financed dozens of MPs extensively through their association. In the 2007 parliamentary elections, especially the representatives of the center and the coalition received support.

The uproar arose because there were flaws in the representatives' election money announcements.