The Confederation of Finnish Industries, EK, changed the organisation's rules in order to prevent it from negotiating economy-wide pay agreements with unions. Such agreements have covered in the past some 93 percent of the workforce, mandating a central line for pay increases that set the parameters for sector-based agreements, usually valid for a period of two years. Observers point out that there have been twenty of these 'incomes policy' agreements since the first in 1968, and rightly call EK's move a 'historic decision'.
English: http://yle.fi/uutiset/thursdays_papers_posti_strike_end_of_collective_pay_deals …
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.