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15 June, 2009
The 20th Congress of the Finnish Paperworkers’ Union, Paperiliitto, was held in Helsinki last week, and leaders of local branches together with national leadership forged a concise agenda in order to gain a wage adjustment in pay talks this October.
Although the current agreement with Finland’s Forest Industries Federation expires at the end of March 2010, a wage reopener occurs in October, and there is little doubt that if accord is not met, the contract will be terminated.
The Congress took up 260 resolutions from local branches, and probed future opportunities for cooperation and joint actions with other Finnish trade unions in the wake of the Finnish Metalworkers’ Union abandoning the multi-union Finnish merger that was to be called TEAM.
Paperiliitto Executive Committee
The over 200 Paperiliitto participants, together with 18 international trade union guests, convened in Helsinki from 10-12 June at a time when all of Finland hopes the worst effects of a period of job redundancies and mill and machine shutdowns in the forest sector are over.
Union President Jouko Ahonen called attention to the questionable risks, mistaken acquisitions, and mis-directed financial investment by pulp and paper companies that has brought social upheaval to Finnish communities.
President Jouko Ahonen
He predicted that employers will attempt to demand concessions, reductions to benefits, and erosion of rights in this autumn’s negotiations. In assuring delegates that paperworkers of Finland have earned wage increases because of better productivity with fewer staff, Ahonen stated, “If there are no pay raises, there will be no agreement.”
Paperiliitto delegates discussed the possibility that TEAM, as a single Finnish industrial union, might not occur triggered new opportunities for cohesion and cooperation for 22,000-member Paperiliitto. Three years ago, Paperiliitto declined to take part in the industrial union merger. Although delegates were quick to rule out entering any revised merger plan, they recognize that several industrial unions have upcoming wage talks, and the demand for cooperation and joint actions are evident.
Lauri Lyly, President of SAK, the Finnish Central Labour Organization, stated that traditions and emotions played a key role in stopping the TEAM merger, but that its dissolution might present other openings. He was also critical of the government for having no plan or facility to match the shrinking purchasing power of Finnish citizens with reality.
Finland’s Labour Minister, Tarja Cronberg, chronicled the plight of the Finnish forestry sector and said even with recovery, previous levels of jobs and pulp and paper tonnage would not be reached. She called for reform from the inside and said social partners in collective bargaining must come to flexible arrangements and a competitive response.
Also speaking at the Congress at the opening session, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda stated that the global financial collapse is due to a “neo-liberal model that has come broken.” He pledged that the ICEM “will not help to revive what we consider a dying horse.”
Warda also addressed the ICEM’s ever-increasing work in the global pulp, paper, and packaging sectors, and the progress made in the Global Union Federation’s “North Meets South” work plan.
Paperiliitto Congress, forefront Gen. Sec. Petri Vanhala and Financial Manager Seija Minervue
With six years of hardened experience as President of Paperiliitto, Ahonen was unanimously elected to another four-year term. Elected as Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Union Council were Ilkka Nokelelainen and Jouko Suomalainen, respectively.
Besides Ahonen, those elected to Paperiliitto’s Executive Committee were: Timo Virtanen, Branch 5, Mänttä; Jouko Aitonurmi, Branch 42, Rauma; Pertti Susi, Branch 7, Kauttua; Mirja Käki, Branch 66, Hämeenlinna; Juhani Haapala, Branch 19, Kuusankoski; Ari Kujapa, Branch 17, Kotka; and
Veijo Ruotsalainen, Branch 52, Pietarsaari; Jarmo Kinnunen, Branch 44, Lauritsala; Jorma Paajanen, Branch 77, Äänekoski; Jari Heikkilä, Branch 4, Tampere, Kai Pärnänen, Branch 14, Verkaus, Timo Byman, Branch 35, Myllykoski; and Lauri Santaniemi, Branch 43, Oulu.
In accepting another term, Ahonen said he is “one and only one” member of a unified union team that will shape the better times to come for Finland’s pulp, paper, and forestry sector. “I do feel optimistic that better times avail for the future,” he said, adding the union’s newly-named Executive Committee and the Union Council, in concert with Paperiliitto’s 34 branch unions, will play a major role in recovery of the Nordic nation’s most important industry.