JHL’s walkout will interrupt security checks at Helsinki Airport on Thursday 5 October, the demonstration will last half an hour

On Thursday 5 October, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL is organising a walkout that will interrupt security checks at Helsinki Airport from 1.30 to 2 pm. The walkout is a political demonstration, and it does not target the employer or valid collective agreement.

– The Orpo Government is going to punish employees by, say, making it easier to fire people and make use of fixed-term employment relationships. We do not accept the constant humiliation of employees. The Government is deaf to employee demands, so we must take tougher measures, JHL President Päivi Niemi-Laine sums up.

JHL is ready to openly negotiate on working life reforms. However, the Government is trying to push through the changes with one-sided dictation, and working life specialists haven’t been listened to. That’s why trade unions must take action, Niemi-Laine highlights.

– Unfortunately, we’re forced to extend our measures, seeing as there are no genuine negotiations on offer.

The misery brought by the Government is inevitably going to hit the security sector, too. Trade Union JHL defends all its members’ terms and conditions of employment and categorically opposes the weakenings planned by the Government.

In addition to eroding the terms and conditions of employment, the Government wants to crush the Finnish labour market with a model in which no sector would in the future get larger pay raises than the export industry.

– The Government is going to cement a system in Finland in which children’s nurses in day care centres, registered nurses and elderly care professionals, among others, will never be lifted out of the pay gap. This is unfair and makes no sense. For instance the social welfare and health care sector has an urgent labour shortage. How is the Government going to find employees for jobs if the pay doesn’t meet the demands of the job, Niemi-Laine lashes out.

Trade Union JHL started a series of political demonstrations during the last week of September. If the Government doesn’t change its insane policy of making cuts, the measures will continue in the coming weeks. The events organised by JHL are political demonstrations, and it is completely legal to participate in them. If a trade union notifies of an industrial action or a walkout, those members whose work the notification applies to will participate.

More information

President Päivi Niemi-Laine 040 702 4772