Caregivers Helena Kaasalainen, 68, participated in the mass resignation of nurses in 2007 – Now she explains how she was afraid of sanctions

In autumn 2007 Helena from Kaasala excited. She was one of more than 12,000 nurses who were due to leave their jobs on Nov. 20 if an agreement in a labor dispute had not been reached.

“It ran through my thoughts that this is the end of my career here,” says Kaasalainen, now 68 years old.

The events of 15 years ago have returned to the mind of Kaasalainen, who is now retiring on the Spanish Sunshine Coast, after closely following the current labor struggle of the nurses.

Caregivers Tehy and Super announced last week that they are beginning to prepare for a mass resignation. Tehy’s council has already decided on the matter.

“I can well imagine the feelings that caregivers have. It’s a tight place, ”says Kaasalainen.

Read more: Tehy’s council decided to start preparing for mass layoffs

In 2007 was the last time Tehy threatened with mass layoffs. It is a rare industrial actionwhich in practice only works in sectors suffering from labor shortages.

At that time, Kaasalainen worked as an ophthalmologist at an ophthalmology clinic in Helsinki. Although no one could have replaced the ophthalmologists, Kaasalainen carefully considered participating in the mass resignation.

“Of course I talked about it at home too. And there was a lot of talk in the workplace with colleagues about what should be done here now. ”

As a former Tehy activist in the local department, he says he still absolutely thought he had to join the “resignation gang”. According to his memory, all who were members of Tehy left the department.

Labor dispute the other party, the then Municipal Labor Market Department, warned caregivers not to resign. In a press release, for example, it said the benefits of an “old employee” would disappear if the layoff returned to work.

This did not happen in the end, but by common agreement everyone returned to work under the former terms of employment. The benefits would hardly be lost even now, was evaluated, for example, from the Pirkanmaa Hospital District was evaluated for HS earlier this week.

Tehy would have paid a mass struggle allowance of 60 euros a day to the mass redundancies, but Kaasalainen was worried about his livelihood and future.

“At least I didn’t think for myself what the employer was thinking. But the foremost concern was their own livelihood. That the job is going away and that I won’t care about anything after that, ”he says.

“But on the other hand, I’ve always thought in my life that this world is not over.”

Read more: What would mass redundancy mean for an individual caregiver? “It’s really annoying for employees,” the HR manager describes the potential payroll problems

Read more: The director of Tehy, who organized the mass redundancies in 2007, explains what the exceptional measure requires – “I don’t even remember all the darkest moments”

Agreement was born in 2007 at the last minute. The conciliation board found a unanimous proposal on Sunday, November 18, just two days before the resignations took effect.

Kaasalainen remembers Monday’s joy at work. He says he himself was interviewed on the morning TV, and the nurses in the ward watched the broadcast.

HS also interviewed Kaasalainen. He glowed at the time how wonderful it was to come to work, but “I didn’t have time to get the cake”.

“Bun coffee was drunk and we were really happy overall that it was handled this way,” Kaasalainen says now.

“We were a little happy that there was no need to resign. But they were ready for it. ”

In hospital districts, it was time to anticipate that interventions would have hit the emergency room, intensive care, obstetrics, acute cancer care, and emergency surgery the worst. It was reported that as many as 70 to 100 percent of nurses would have resigned from the critical functions of university hospitals.

Tehy aimed for 24 percent pay increases for caregivers, and estimates that after receiving the agreement, he received 22 to 28 percent pay increases for the contract period until the end of 2011. The municipal employer’s estimate of the increases was about 15.7–22.5 per cent.

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“All you can do is cross your arms in the evening and be happy to be out of work and out of work.”

Spanish solar Kaasalainen, who is hibernating below, especially remembers the times of resolving the dispute well. She also encourages nurses now in industrial action.

“There was basically a good feeling there, but seriously,” he says.

At the heart of the negotiations, the experience might have been heavier. For example, Tehy’s former chairman Jaana Laitinen-Pesola described to HS that he was pleased that “not all the darkest moments are remembered”.

After all, Kaasalainen doesn’t long to return to work. He talks about the labor shortage of caregivers, the ongoing overtime and the looming transition below the welfare zones next year.

“Huhhuijaa. All you can do is cross your arms in the evening and be happy that you are not at work and no longer have a job obligation. When you turn 68, you can no longer be called to work, ”he says and laughs.