Workers of all nations, join the EU!
PERSPECTIVE
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By Juha Akkanen
Throbbing head? Dry mouth? Sounds like you have also been staying up late into the night thinking about the challenges imposed on the Finnish economy by EU enlargement.
Not even the threat of a surge of cheap labour seems to be enough to get the Finnish trade union movement to work together for a common cause. Whereas the blue-collar SAK (the Central Organisation of Trade Unions) keeps using scare tactics, the white-collar STTK (the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees) is willing to welcome the new wage earners into the common EU family.
This is quite understandable as such; the Estonian threat seems more real for manual workers than for those in office work professions. Or have you ever heard of an undocumented foreign worker moonlighting as a tax inspector?
As there is little evidence available at this point, the concern of the SAK and some of its affiliate unions seems understandable, but exaggerated.
Masses of people moved from Finland to Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s. How much did Sweden suffer as a result? What about the Finns who moved to Sweden? If the psychological anguish is not taken into account, it seems that most came back at least one Volvo richer.
It is often easy to frighten people with a new situation. When Finland joined the European Union, it was said that the Germans would buy our summer cottages, and the Portuguese would flock here to live well on our social welfare. Still, we haven’t seen those Germans or those Portuguese.
Of course it is easy to sit here and shout from the audience. It is unlikely that many Finnish-language journalists will stampede here from Poland or Lithuania looking for a job.
Without downplaying the concern felt by the SAK, one might imagine that the Estonians would mostly come to work at jobs that the Finns feel are beneath them. That is, the same kinds of jobs that Finns emigrated to Sweden to do. If workers can be found in Estonia to do jobs that would otherwise be left undone, then welcome to Finland!
It is easy to completely forget in all of this how our patronising attitude must feel to the Estonians. Finns still find it difficult to act naturally toward the Swedes, whom many consider arrogant dandies, even though we are already as prosperous as they are.
Organised labour would do well to shape up and try to engage in some cooperation. The organisations would have plenty of room for improvement in the EU and around the world. The employers’ side has noticed this already, and is making common cause, in spite of some friction.
It is difficult for an outsider to understand why it is so difficult to unite the wage earners’ organisations. Although white-collar and blue-collar workers have different value systems, it is unlikely that a new organisation would be any more schizophrenic than the present AKAVA (the Confederation of Unions of Academic Professionals in Finland), which wants lower taxes, but no cutbacks in public services.
In the current situation, the management side is in the better position. It is like during the last round of incomes talks, when the SAK wanted protection against change, and the STTK wanted job security. The employers laughed, asking what the proletariat really wants.
One more thing about cheap labour: field studies on the invasion of undocumented labour could be started tomorrow evening at Helsinki harbour. Will there be more work-hungry Estonians, or more tipsy Finns with a cardboard 10-pack of Koskenkorva vodka bottles under their arms, who might not want to go to work on Monday yet?
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 1.5.2004
JUHA AKKANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
juha.akkanen@hs.fi
