Helsinki drivers' strike to go before Labour Court

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According to the Commission for Local Authority Employers (KT), Monday’s one-day stoppage by drivers of Helsinki City Transport (HKL) was an illegal strike, as national employment and collective bargaining agreements are in force nationwide in the municipal sector.
      KT has filed suit against the Trade Union for Staff in the Municipal Sector (KTV) and against the so-called Union for Municipal Sector (“Kunta-alan Unioni”), the joint negotiating body that acts in collective agreements on the behalf of KTV and the Federation of Municipal Officers, KVL.
     
The Commission is taking the organisations to the Labour Court on the grounds that they have breached the obligation associated with collective agreements to refrain from taking industrial action on matters specifically covered by the agreement in question.
      Such obligations are both passive and active: in the former case, the parties are obliged to hold back from taking industrial action, while in the active form, the umbrella organisations are supposed to ensure that their members comply.
      KT intends to seek compensatory fines from a total of ten organisations that took part in the arranging of the 24-hour strike. Helsinki City Transport’s trams, metro trains, and a sizeable share of the bus services were brought to a halt from the early hours of Monday morning.
     
The Helsinki City Council will today be discussing a proposal from the City Board recommending the merger of the bus service operations of HKL’s Bus Transport Unit (basically a municipal utility) and Suomen Turistiauto, a limited company owned by the City of Helsinki.
      Fears of what this might lead to - in practice a perception among drivers that this would be the first step towards privatisation of Helsinki’s bus services - is what sparked the strike action.
      The Council meeting is expected to be colourful and noisy, but there is little doubt about the outcome: the fusion of the two operators will go through and the new limited company will begin operations from the beginning of 2005, under City of Helsinki ownership.
     
The City Board voted 11-4 in favour of the measure last week. The National Coalition Party, Greens, Swedish People’s Party, and Christian Democrats were all in favour. The Left Alliance and Social Democrats rejected the planned merger.
      In the wake of the strike, it does not appear as if the political battle-lines have shifted.
      In any event, the National Coalition Party (25 seats) and Greens (21 seats) could carry the day in the 85-member City Council, even without flanking support from the two smaller parties.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki survives public transport strike - drivers return to work Tuesday morning (14.9.2004)

Links:
  Labour Court
  Helsinki City Council, Helsinki City Board

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