On February 18th, I blogged about employment and people’s expectations of it. In the post I also touched on the issue of labor unions and how they affect people’s lives these days, unfortunately too often in a negative way. To my readers outside Finland, we’re just into the second large nationwide strike this week from the same union – AKT (Transport Worker’s Union). First they were on strike with the bus drivers and now they pulled their big guns out as they’re on strike with the dock workers.
Dock workers are a crucial logistic bottle neck in many economies that rely on sea based transportation to export and import goods. If they stop working, nothing moves through our borders – in an industrial context. Therefore, they are the key to a nation’s wellbeing – in a sense. The situation now is that Finland’s dock workers are on strike, putting our whole country to a stand still.
To some, very little degree I understand the concept of being on strike. In my previous post I argued that it has been a major part of the wellbeing of our society as workers have been able to stand up and defend their rights to make working conditions civil. However, in today’s society I have very little understanding for being on strike – very little.
The current strike we’re experiencing isn’t only stirring up disgust in the society, but it’s damaging our slow economic recovery in a very harmful way. Helsingin Sanomat, in their online version, had a poll whether the right to be on strike should be limited – 50% of people supported this move and another 50% were against it. This clearly divides our society. In another poll by Ilta-Sanomat, 73% of the readers did not justify being on strike during recession and times of economic diffuculty. By no means are these polls academic or show any scientific relevance on any level, but I do believe they cast the voices of the public to some degree.
Many people relate the AKT strike to the Paper Union strike a few years back when they put the paper industry to a halt, causing millions of euros of lost revenues each day. The situation these days is that the paper union has lost thousands of jobs in Finland, partly or should I say mostly, due to those strikes. A two week strike easily wiped out the possibility to keep the year profitable which would have meant more investments and possibilities to survive in the future.
I’m guessing AKT is signing its contract to follow in the foot steps of the Paper Union. They will inevitably face the more extreme actions of the employers in keeping the industry profitable and somewhat running. This in essence will mean that the employer’s side of the table will begin to take every possible step to renew the labor force with more motivated workers. I’m not even going to go through the demands the union is on strike for, there simply cannot be any understanding for their actions – whatsoever.
Another interesting reaction to this strike has been the temporary shut down of the UPM Kymmene Rauma paper factory. They’re running very lean processes there and the factory lacks storage for its products, meaning everything they manufacture is immediately taken to the docks. Now that the docks are at stand still, the paper factory has been forced to shut down for the duration of the strike. UPM Kymmene has also stated that they have the right to stop paying wages to the workers after 7 days due to an external strike that has caused their business to halt. This, in the end will make those paper union workers dig into their union savings. A nasty outcome, that I somehow secretly enjoy watching.
My only recommendation is that someone in our government step up and start discussions on the right to strike. When a 3000 strong group is able to bring the country to a stand still and harm the economic wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of people – no one can understand a cause that would justify this. We need to begin to renew the way these negotiations are handled, our wellbeing cannot be harmed by any selfish group of people only looking to improve their own work conditions above others’ for a short period (because the markets will always right them in long term).
I have no understanding of whatsoever for the current AKT strike. Actually their strike disgusts me in how they show no respect for the wellbeing of our society.
Update @ 11.17pm on March 4th, 2010: Reminded by a friend, Finland is actually nearing the top position of lost workdays due to strikes in the EU. Two countries remain to be overtaken by the unions, they are Spain and Italy. There’s a well written post about strikes in Finland by Harri Nummila on the Statistics Finland website.
Furthermore, these statistics compare the amount of lost work days we endure in relation to other European countries.
