Trade Union News from Finland

[front page]

archive: [2002] [2001] [2000] [1999] [1998] [1997] [by issue]

[sponsors]
[site info]

ISSN 1458-4433

ETUC

XPDNC

+ Other links

E-mail your comments, questions and subscription requests to get the latest stories from this service sent free of charge directly to your e-mailbox.

The news service is sponsored by SAK, the largest central trade union in Finland, and ten of its 23 affiliated unions.

If you want the text quicklyto be translated into French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish, you may try Babel fish, but remember what its provider says: "Machine translation produces reasonable results in many cases. But you should not rely on it."

Trade Union News from Finland
begins sixth year of reporting

Helsinki (16.08.2002 - Juhani Artto) Trade Union News from Finland (Trunf) yesterday celebrated its fifth anniversary. The existence of this unique information service is based on the firm belief that working life in Finland and the Finnish trade union movement have several features of interest to many people working and living in other countries. These include trade unionists, journalists, researchers and people in many other occupations and walks of life.

Trunf not only promotes information exchange, but also conveys research findings and new ideas. This is essential, for example, when seeking to narrow the gender disparity in working life. No country has been able to eliminate this gap, and so nobody can claim to have managed the problem and to have no need to work with others aiming to resolve or reduce the scale of this challenge.

Similar conclusions may also be drawn on several other issues, such as occupational safety, the future of the welfare state, the effects of an ageing labour force and the impact of globalisation. In all of these areas and several others Finland has gained its own experiences and drawn its own conclusions, including the views of the trade unions.

From the very beginning Trunf has been published only on the Internet. All of the published articles can be found in chronological order on the Trunf website, and new articles can be subscribed by e-mail from the free list service.

The leading trade union site Labourstart regularly links to Trunf stories.

Trunf accelerates
migrant worker
empowerment

Helsinki (16.08.2002 - Daryl Taylor) Although Trunf remains a web-based publication, many articles have also been reprinted in hard copy materials used by migrant workers in Finland, especially those organised in PAM-Lingua, the foreign language professionals section of Service Unions United. The articles have also provided materials for English language training courses for the officials of trade unions and employers’ federations, and have been used in both public and private sector migrant worker integration and induction programmes. This invaluable publication really opens up the mysteries of Finnish industrial relations and greatly accelerates the empowerment of such workers. I continue to be highly appreciative of the window that Juhani Artto and other contributors to Trunf have provided to immigrants living and working in Finland, who would otherwise be linguistically excluded from participation in the industrial relations issues that affect their lives.

Dagens Arbete, the net publication maintained by four Swedish trade unions, has published most of the Trunf articles in its Finland section. A US-based mailing list focusing on labour issues also distributes all Trunf updates to its subscribers.

Following an initial pilot stage lasting a few months, Trunf secured financial support from SAK – the largest central trade union organisation in Finland – and from several of its affiliated unions. While Trunf remains editorially independent from these sponsors, over the five years of its work this journalistic principle has had no practical significance, as there has been no conflict between the sponsors and the publisher on any of the issues and matters reported.

Another invaluable asset for Trunf has been the work of Daryl Taylor, who edits and adjusts the English language of materials that I have written or translated. One additional bonus in this co-operation with Daryl is his excellent grasp of the subject. From time to time he not only improves the language of the articles, but also offers additional details or provides hints on how to improve the approach to make the material more relevant, especially where migrant workers are concerned. (Daryl Taylor was profiled by Helsingin Sanomat in 1999: www.kaapeli.fi/unions/1999/19990209.html)

The amount of feedback received peaked in the early days of Trunf. At that time rather few trade union organisations had websites of their own, and still fewer in the non-English speaking countries published updates in English. Trunf therefore aroused considerable interest. The subsequent establishment of thousands of other labour sites around the world meant that Trunf lost most of these early starter advantages.

Trunf readers have often contacted me to request further details of the issues discussed here, or to contact experts mentioned in the articles. The most popular topic for this kind of feedback has been occupational safety and health. These direct contacts offer the best proof of the usefulness of the publication. The "hit counter" statistics for the site also testify to a world-wide audience, with the predictable preponderance coming from large, wealthy, English-speaking countries. Each Trunf story obviously attracts the interest of several hundred readers.

Trade Union News from Finland is delighted to receive requests for further details on working life in Finland and the Finnish trade union movement. Suggestions for the topics of new stories are also most welcome.

Other sites on economy and working life: