The Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL, Trade Union Pro and the Negotiation Organisation for Public Sector Professionals JUKO on Monday warned of enforcing a 24-hour strike at University of Helsinki and the University of Turku on May 27.
The strike will begin at 12.01 am and end at 11:59 pm on the day, if no solution on the universities’ terms and conditions of employment and pay increases is reached by this time, said the unions in a joint press release.
About 13,000 employees are expected to take part in the strike.
The strike covers all work tasks under the general collective agreement for universities. Work that is ruled out of the strike includes for example essential IT support and core IT services and essential care for samples and animals.
Also work tasks that must be performed in order to protect people’s life or health or to prevent significant danger to property are excluded from the strike.
The collective agreement negotiations of universities have continued for more than three months. In the last three weeks, the labour dispute has been intensively conciliated under the lead of the National Conciliator, but so far no conciliation proposal has been achieved.
The key points of contention include pay increases and teaching hours caps, which protects those engaged in teaching and research work from excessive workloads.
Teaching, research and the administration that supports these are the cornerstones of an educated society.
“Finland’s future is built on knowledge – and it is done by the university employees. Therefore, fair pay increases, with an emphasis on across-the-board increases, and terms and conditions of employment that support wellbeing at work are not subject to negotiation, they are a necessity,” said the JHL, Pro and Juko in the joint press release.
There are 13 universities in Finland, and they employ about 35,000 people.
Earlier, strike was observed at Tampere University on May 7.
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
