Trade unions have picked up the plight of Thai immigrants picking wild berries in Finland. The workers are brought to Finland on tourist visa, where they pick wild berries without a contract and sell their gains to a single company. The current arrangement is possible, because contrary to cultivated berries, wild berries in the forests can be picked by any one and are not included in the rural industries collective agreement. Recently, a group of 50 berry pickers filed criminal charges against the company that brought them to Finland to work, but lost the case in court. Unions are calling on the government to close the loophole and find a way of bringing the Thai wild berry pickers under the collective agreement.
English: http://www.jokinen.kaapeli.fi/index ...
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.