THE INDUSTRIAL UNION, the Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff (YTN), and Trade Union Pro on Friday terminated their collective bargaining agreements in the technology industry, reports Helsingin Sanomat.
The newspaper wrote last week that strikes are a possibility after the agreements in what is a critical export industry have expired at the end of November.
Technology Industry Employers engaged in collective bargaining negotiations with the three unions throughout the autumn, but ultimately the parties to the dispute failed to find common ground on wage hikes for next year by the deadline on Friday, 14 October. Riku Aalto, the chairperson of the Industrial Union, said the parties are “exceptionally far apart” from one another.
“The offer from the employer side fails to sufficiently safeguard the purchasing power of members of the Industrial Union. The employer has offered industrial employees less than the [national] conciliator offered to the public sector,” he commented in a press release on Friday.
“Wage earners have looked after competitiveness for the past decade. It is now employers’ turn to look after purchasing power.”
Petteri Oksa, the head of bargaining at YTN, similarly attributed the collapse of the negotiations to the insufficient wage increases offered by the employer organisation.
“The employer’s assessment of a sufficient level [of wage increases] was obscenely low, and there was no appreciation of everyone’s purchasing power, meaning general increases,” he commented on Twitter.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
