By 4.00pm Friday afternoon the Transport Workers’ Union AKT, the Service Union United PAM, the Finnish Food Workers Union SEL, and the Construction Trade Union had announced their decision to opt out of the labour market deal aimed at meeting Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s goal of boosting business competitiveness.
SAK chair Lauri Lyly said that he was not surprised by the decisions.
"A very large proportion of the SAK family, 40 percent is now outside. It is a rather large part," Lyly told Yle.
"We now have to see if something can be done about the reasons [for rejecting the deal] that we’ve heard from these unions," he added.
Earlier on Friday afternoon, Lyly said that he understood the unions’ decisions.
"The decisions were based on the unions’ sector-based needs, that’s how I interpret it. Another reason is that this is a minus-sign solution, this will place burdens on employees," Lyly commented.
"I understand that this isn’t easy for anyone. But the alternative is even worse than what we have offered. This is the smallest bump in the road, we will try together to find a solution to generate employment and investment."
Nothing certain for some time
SAK member unions were expected to indicate Friday whether or not they would sign up for the labour market accord. The SAK leadership will then decide on Monday whether or not to accept the results of the member unions.
"We are now evaluating whether or not we will engage in the next stage of talks. Now let’s just wait for the entire round and then we will draw conclusions on Monday."
Asked whether or not there would be an adequate number of unions on board to meet the goals of the competitiveness agreement, Lyly said that would not be known for some time.
"We will only know at the end of May, when we have had the implementation negotiations, whether or not this is comprehensive enough. We are now deciding if we will enter those discussions and who will be involved. It could still be that some sectors that enter the talks will not see the negotiation results. We will only know if the whole package is settled in June," Lyly concluded.
