Border guards threaten to expand strike to airports and harbours

Dispute over use of non-commissioned officers adds friction between quarrelling parties

print this

Finland's border guards are threatening to start a new strike on the week of the Midsummer holiday. This time around it would last for a month and would eventually include the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport as well as the capital's harbours.
      Despite Monday's Labour Court ruling that checking of passports could not be labelled as safety work, the Frontier Guard is still using outside staff to perform minimum inspections to travellers from outside the EU and EEA.
      In the next phase of industrial action, should it come to this, controlling of the country's south-eastern land and sea borders would cease on June 21st. At the beginning of July, the strike would shift further north to the provinces of Lapland and Kainuu, where guarding of borders and checking of passports would also end.
      The third stage of the strike, starting on July 12th, would see the end of examination of passports at the border crossing points in the southeast and North Karelia, the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport, and at the Helsinki seaports.
     
The threat of a new strike is being used as an incentive to speed up the current negotiations.
      "If our fieldworkers are not happy with the progress in the negotiations we have no choice but to commence the second phase of the strike", says Border Guards' Union chairman Reijo Kortelainen.
      On Tuesday there was little progress in the negotiations, and the National Conciliator Juhani Salonius sees no chance for a proposal on a settlement just yet. The talks will continue on Thursday.
     
The first phase of the strike, which started a week ago, will end this Saturday. The effects of the strikes remained relatively insignificant as the Frontier Guard labelled duties at crossing points as safety work and allocated them to non-union workers.
      Despite the fact that the Labour Court ruled that such tasks could not be labelled as safety work, the Frontier Guard did not put a stop to the examination of passports but merely defined the work more precisely. Minimum inspections are performed to travellers from outside the EU and EEA.
      At the Lapland and Kainuu border crossing points, the checking of passports is part of the foremen's job description.
     
The Border Guards' Union plans to take the dispute back to the Labour Court.
      According to the Union, the Frontier Guard has ordered non-commissioned officers, who are members of the Finnish Officers' Association, to take over the so-called safety work. The Union argues that such personnel have never before carried out examinations of passports.
      "The Frontier Guard plays judicial games seasoned with military orders. It is sickening", says chairman Kortelainen.
      The Border Guards' Union has labelled as strikebreakers those Finnish Officers' Association members who took over the border control tasks.
      "We resent the name-calling. We only performed safety work duties as ordered by our employer until the order was cancelled. We do not see ourselves as strikebreakers", says chief shop steward Mika Ala-Hiiro of the Finnish Officers' Association.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Inspections on eastern border to minimum level (7.6.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat