National Coalition Party Secretary says nurses´ labour dispute eroding Party´s support

"Party has kept its election promises", Taru Tujunen insists

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Taru Tujunen, party secretary of the National Coalition Party, is concerned about recent poll figures indicating a decrease in public support for the moderate conservative grouping.
      Meanwhile, another poll suggests 49 per cent of Finns consider the National Coalition Party to be the main culprit in the ongoing labour dispute between municipal employers and health care workers who are members of the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy), while 62 per cent feel that the National Coalition Party betrayed the nurses with unfounded promises of higher pay.
      Tehy members have announced intentions to resign en masse on November 19th if their pay demands are not met.
     
Taru Tujunen feels that the Tehy situation is confusing. "It has led to a situation in which people cannot say whom they support, and that is why support for the National Coalition Party has declined."
      She notes that the support lost by her party has not boosted the others: instead the ranks of the "don't knows" are on the rise.
      Meanwhile, at the party offices there is confusion about why citizens do not understand that a pay hike of EUR 150 million for low-paid predominantly female professions is an achievement of historic proportions.
      "We need to think about what has gone wrong; why we have not been able to clearly express to people what has actually been done - that the National Coalition Party has literally kept its election promises", Tujunen says.
      "It is clear that there is a conflict between the National Coalition and the citizenry."
     
Tujunen goes back to events related to the Parliamentary elections earlier this year.
      "We received information that Finland had been the only country in the European Union in which pay differences between men and women had grown. We grabbed on to this, and [National Coalition Party Chairman] Jyrki Katainen said that salaries in predominantly female professions involving high training need to be raised. We spoke about pay equality", Tujunen explains.
      According to the party secretary, many things were discussed, but the examples that were used invovled nurses and teachers. "We figured out that the state should provide extra money for educated predominantly female professions. On January 5th Katainen started talking about an equality incomes agreement."
      Then came the decisive moment.
      "[The late-edition tabloid newspaper] Iltalehti asked if nurses should get a pay raise of EUR 500 a month. I answered that they should. In the same answer I said that a fair result could be achieved with several solutions like this."
      "Everybody except the Centre Party answered yes. I am not ready to confirm claims that Tujunen has spoken incautiously. I did not. I would still give the same answer."
      As no incomes agreement came, the notion of an extra equality-promoting pay hike was written into the government programme. "At our insistence", Tujunen points out.
     
Tehy complained that the wording did not specify the nurses as the beneficiaries of the equality bonus. Should this have been done?
      "I cannot answer that. We never spoke exclusively about nurses. I headed an election campaign and my focus was on highly trained, predominantly female professions."


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Labour market experts doubt nurses will get pay hikes they want (22.10.2007)
  COMMENTARY: Companies entering wage talks to pay for Katainen gaffe (24.9.2007)
  Labour leader hopes for good cooperation with new government (30.3.2007)
  Mediation board begins efforts to reach settlement in labour dispute between nurses and municipal employers (1.11.2007)
  Health care workers threaten mass resignation in labour dispute (10.10.2007)

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