VR Track’s labour negotiations continue, even as the Finnish Electrical Workers’ Union members returned to work when the strike ended Friday evening.
“Saturday work continued as normal and the strike caused no disruption to train scheduling,” says Tuomas Aatro, Deputy Director General at the Finnish Service Sector Employers' Union known as PALTA.
Yet industrial action is not over. Union branch number 177 has announced that the next employee strike is scheduled to begin on July 26 and will continue until July 30. In a show of solidarity, other unions are expected to join in the last day of striking.
Employer representatives are not optimistic about reaching a satisfactory conclusion anytime soon.
“Finding some kind of agreement would require a reconsideration of the union branch demands,” says PALTA’s Aatro.
Aarto says it is possible that the dispute can be solved in a conciliatory fashion, but no official mediating meetings have been arranged. For the time being, he says there are no prerequisites for reserving a time to sit down with a state-appointed labour mediator.
The Finnish State Railways VR has grown tired of the repeated striking and has introduced a three-week lockout at VR Track, beginning July 31.
“In practice, this means that workers’ pay will be suspended for three weeks,” says Aatro.
PALTA’s lockout affects all electricians that are members of the Electrical Workers’ Union and branch number 177.
Installation specialists want in on Electrical Union’s collective agreement
Branch 177 of the Finnish Electrical Workers’ Union, known as the Rail Transport Electricity, Telecommunications and Safety Professionals Association, has arranged several labour strikes throughout the summer.
“It is simply a matter of shop steward rights. Upcoming layoffs also play a significant part,” says Union Chair Petri Tamminen.
Tamminen says the dispute is about letting electric installation specialists enjoy the same working conditions as workers under the Electrical Workers’ Union collective agreement. This way, workers would receive their own shop stewards who would represent them in future labour negotiations. Currently VR Track's electrical installation specialists come under existing labour agreements for railway workers.
VR says railway sector labour agreements are traditionally negotiated by JHL, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors, and sees no justification for changing this practice.