Finnish Metalworkers' Union vote on merger

FINLAND: Members of the Finnish Metalworkers' Union will vote on February 5-19 on whether to participate in the establishment of a new industrial union comprised of six national unions representing workers in metal, media, railway, wood, electrical and chemical industries.

The opinion that gets the majority of votes will be put before the Finnish Metalworkers' Union's board, who will decide on whether to hold an extraordinary Congress in June 2009 where a final vote will be put before the membership.

The planning stages of the amalgamation initiative, called TEAM, started in 2005, with a membership vote in favour of future participation taking place at the metalworkers' 2008 Congress in May.

The Chemical Workers' Union is also voting on the merger over the next few weeks, together they are the two largest unions of the six TEAM unions. It is suspected that the Media Union, the Wood and Allied Workers' Union and the Railway Workers' Union are in favour of the amalgamation, however it is unclear what is the leading position the Electrical Workers' Union membership.

Should the TEAM amalgamation go forward, unions plan to become one union on January 1, 2010.

Voting results were announced on February 19, the majority of the votes, 55,6 per cent, favoured the continuation of the TEAM-project. The voting turnout was 26,5 per cent, the number of entitled voters was 166,700.

The Metalworkers will convene an extraordinary Congress at the beginning of June in Tampere to make the necessary decisions.