Some 100,000 employees in Finland join two-day strike

About 100,00 employees in Finland took part in the largest trade union strike, IltaSanomat newspaper reports citing the Central Association of Trade Unions (SAK).

The strikes began on December 14 and some of them lasted until Friday evening. The workers are opposing labour market reforms promoted by government officials. The government wants to ban strikes, simplify dismissals, and cut benefits.

Finnish Minister of Employment Arto Satonen estimated that the strikes that disrupted food distribution, manufacturing operations, public transport services and other important functions for the day had a price tag of 100–130 million euros.

Satonen offered the estimate during a plenary parliamentary session that dealt primarily with the strained labour market situation.

The government, he argued, has no choice but to carry out reforms to elevate what remains a comparatively low employment rate. He also expressed his doubt about the ability of labour market organisations to come up with measures to create 100,000 new jobs, the stated goal of the government, predicting that their response would be a “blank paper”.