Editorial | The wage earners come to agree on their weakened positions

Pthe labor market round negotiating the starting and other working conditions has started.

The position of wage earners in Finnish society has experienced a significant weakening when entering this round. The government has rewritten laws regarding the labor market and social security, ignoring the views of the larger ay movement. The changes are the most significant interventions in labor market regulation in decades. Changes at the system level are permanent – there will hardly be a government that cancels these laws.

The labor market cycle was also primed by the political strikes in the first half of the year, with which wage earners tried to get the government to back down. The strikes didn’t help at all, proving the changing role of the ay movement.

A special background factor in the labor market is that in the government that divides wage earners and unemployed, the basic Finns have established themselves as the big wage earner party. The party’s support may have suffered a little because of this, but it has not collapsed. For many people from the Danube, immigration is a bigger issue than the job market – which also drives the ay movement to a special position.

Workers do not see the limitation of political strikes to 24 hours as the world’s biggest loss. In the end, there have been quite a few political strikes. Labor struggles that are not directed at valid collective agreements but at broader social issues are considered political.

Limiting support strikes, increasing strike fines and directing them to individuals are much more painful solutions. They break the wage earners’ ability to build a common front and mutual solidarity. Legal support labor disputes are now those that are reasonable in relation to the goals and whose effects only affect the parties to the labor dispute. In the past, small unions have been able to get bigger unions to support them in speeding up contract negotiations. There have been significantly more support strikes than actual political strikes.

Tin the background of the night market tour, a change in the rules regarding conservation work is being built. Protective work refers to work that is necessary during a labor dispute so that citizens’ lives or health are not endangered. The government wants even legal strikes to be limited even when they threaten property and nature. One thing to consider is, among other things, whether the employer could decide how much labor is needed so that there would be no danger from strikes. These changes would also weaken the position of wage earners – judging from previous controversies regarding protection work, especially in the care sector.

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The picture of the state of the economy may change.

Since the labor market cycle is quite long, the picture of the state of the economy may change during the cycle. Currently, wage earners are evaluating the losses they experienced in law changes and social security, as well as the weakening of purchasing power caused by inflation and interest rates. In the labor market round, they want compensation for these in one way or another.

Tpreliminary forecasts say that growth will perhaps accelerate next year, which is interpreted as favoring compensation. And the comparison countries have already received increases. The road becomes rockier if the economic growth does not start as expected during the long cycle and in the increasingly local negotiations, it becomes clear that the own company cannot pay.

In addition to all that, the welfare district and municipal elections are in time for the labor market round. Employees in the municipal sector in particular are upset about the government’s export model proposal, which, in the opinion of the ay movement, weakens the opportunities for female-dominated public sectors to raise wages. Among those who are irritated, there are many supporters of the main government party, the Coalition.

The start of the labor market cycle seems surprisingly calm when you take into account what has happened in recent history and what is to come. The employers’ interpretation seems to be that the danger of an explosion is over because the government dismantled the bomb.

The editorials are HS’s positions on a current topic. The articles are prepared by HS’s editorial department, and they reflect the magazine principle line.