Finland - Bus drivers protest unilateral “agreement shopping” - April 29, 2010

In Helsinki over 700 bus drivers have begun a strike on Wednesday 28 April, planning to return to work on Friday 30. The strike is a protest against their employer's unilateral announcement to replace the company-specific collective agreement by the bus traffic national collective agreement. The announcement came as a total surprise to the drivers, who accuse the employer (Helsingin Bussiliikenne Oy, owned by the City of Helsinki) of “agreement shopping”, thus breaking the legislation on mandatory company-level consultation and undermining drivers' annual leave rights and present work schedules. The current agreement expires on 30 April 30 and is signed by the JHL union, the union for the public and welfare sectors, whereas the bus traffic national collective agreement is signed by the AKT union, organising transport workers and employees in the tourism industry.

English: http://www.artto.kaapeli.fi/unions/T2010/jhl06

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.