Finnish News Recap, week 38: Unions Issue Warning Shot edition

BUDGET FINALIZED: The government has finalized its first budget. In addition to the amount of new debt being 1,5 billion greater than already projected (now totaling 11.5 billion), the government is implemented several cuts that will surely arouse much resistance – as has already happened. Finance Minister Purra stated that she would to have still more cuts to put in the reserve if these ones aren’t sufficient to fix the deficit, which they of course won’t be.

Some of the most controversial cuts are related to housing. One would cut housing benefits for those on income support – the lowest category of dole, basically, the one that you are entitled to even if you aren’t entitled to any other benefits. This would hurt the poorest of the poor and make it impossible for many of them to live in any larger cities, which wouldn’t be too good for their prospects of being employed in the future. Of course, it would also increase evictions and defaults, thus leading to uncertainty in the already-wobbly housing market.

Some other notable cuts including junking a new railway line making it possible to get from Tampere to Helsinki – from the second largest urban area, where I live, to the largest – in a hour (while saving the one that would allow getting from Turku, the third biggest area and coincidentally the PM’s home turf, to Helsinki). On the other hand, the planned cut to parental leave allowance has been junked, perhaps in recognition of the crashing birth rates and the effect on families.

In the grand tradition of governments, the new government is already gearing up to blame all its unpopular actions on the previous (center-left) government. In addition to the amount of debt taken by the last government (much of it uncontroversial and supported by the new government’s parties to COVID-19 measures and to post-Ukraine military spending), a popular target for attacks is the last government’s health care reform, blamed for rising health care costs and the burdening of the system generally.

The new austerity efforts have already led to protests – not only street protests in some of the earlier updates, but also university occupations, starting with the University of Helsinki and extending to various other universities. Many have scorned student occupations as nothing but privileged kids engaging in an extensive house party inside a university, but it’s probably best seen as an adjunct to a more widespread protest movement, still waiting to be born. Probably much more crucial for the government will be how it will be dealing with a more formidable foe…

UNIONS GEAR UP FOR A FIGHT: Well, they’ve probably been gearing up ever since the government was announced,probably since the election made it look probable that there would be a right-wing government. Still, it was the budget has served as a backdrop for the announcement of a struggle.

Finland’s trade union movement, traditionally one of the most important forces in the country, has seen membership go down, but remains an impressive fighting force when it gets down to it. If they decided to end up announcing a general strike, it would, indeed, truly be a *general* strike; the entire country would basically stop functioning. Even an individual union section on a field with a crucial societal function can cause considerable havoc, as demonstrated by a sudden walkout of Finnair’s airport staff at Helsinki Airport (connected to a local grievance).

As such, the first actual announcement came from SAK, the central organization of Finland’s blue-collar unions – traditionally the most leftist of Finland’s three large union conglomerates, and the most able and willing to utilize strike force. According to SAK deputy chair Katja Syvärinen:

"There will be walkouts, various protests and demonstrations. Emergency workers have been made available and these demonstrations will not endanger anyone's property or life," she said, adding that there are no current plans for a general strike.”

What the unions mostly want is an actual seat at the table while the government is planning their reforms. Since the unions would probably use this seat to attempt to terminate or considerably blunt the government’s reforms, the government is not intent on granting that seat. As such, the unions have labelled the proposed tripartite talks for reforms as a sham and a theatre.

Once the union/government conflict really gets going, it will, above all, demonstrate whether the current union movement still has enough strength to get its desires through a hostile government. The previous big conflict in 2018, during Juha Sipilä’s government, ended up with the government’s plans regarding unemployment “activation model” going through mostly unchanged, but with the status of the unions as an important partner still confirmed. It’s not certain whether such a conflict would end similarly this time – much depends on whether right-wing populist voters would end up identifying more with their party in government or with the unions opposing it, a choice that might really go either way.

IN OTHER NEWS, Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria visited Finland, the University of Helsinki is falling in university rankings and the government is mulling whether the fascist Blue-Black Movement should be struck from the party registry. Also check out this video of Putin from the 90s.

Image: General strike of 1956, the last general strike in Finland.