Following deliberations to agree on countermeasures to the government’s recently-announced plans, three union leaders called on their members to show up for a demonstration on Friday September 18. The event is scheduled to start at 11.00 and and will kick off from Helsinki’s Central Railway Station.
The union leaders head up the largest blue collar union federation SAK, the salaried workers’ confederation STTK and Akava, the umbrella union for academic professionals. They represent a total of some 2.2 workers. They’re also inviting members of the public who are concerned about the government’s recent actions to join the demonstration.
In addition to the demonstration the unions have set up an online petition to urge the government The union leaders said in a statement Friday that it is impossible for workers to accept the government’s proposals, which include docking pay for the first sick day, curbing compensation for overtime and Sunday hours and eliminating two bank holidays.
The unions also charged that the measures threaten to violate internationally-accepted labour practices and laws which aim to protect workers in weak positions.
Yle: Transport workers strike to bring transportation, ports to a halt
Meanwhile Yle reported Friday that the Transport Workers Union AKT has called on its members to stop work next Friday during the time that the SAK-ATTK-Akava demonstration is in progress.
The AKT represents some 50,000 workers employed in the transportation industry on the road and at harbours. Strike action would stop deliveries and bring activity at ports to a halt.
Supervisors forced to man Citymarket stores for 15 minutes Friday
Meanwhile the service workers union PAM said that employees at the Kesko Group's Citymarket chain were to walk off the job for 15 minutes from noon Friday. The industrial action is to affect all of the company's 81 outlets across the country.
Some stores may close their doors during that time, but in other cases supervisory staff will be called upon to keep business going. The action will affect only Citymarket stores, but PAM said that there might be isolated cases of walkouts at other of the group's retail outlets. Yesterday workers at the Prisma hypermarket in Kotka walked off the job.
The union said that there was a great deal of pressure from rank and file members to express workers' frustration with the government's measures.
