Kindergartens, shops, public transport and air traffic control are expected to come to a standstill in Finland this week as hundreds of thousands of people go on strike.
The wave of stoppages, which started on Wednesday and is expected to continue into Thursday and Friday before further strikes next week, is in protest at the government’s proposed employment changes and social security cuts.
Up to 300,000 people are expected to join the three days of action – also planned for factories, postal services, preschools, hotels and restaurants – with significant disruption predicted across the country.
On Friday, trains, trams and underground services are expected to stop and buses to be severely affected. Finnair said it would have to cancel about 550 flights and cut traffic at Helsinki airport.
The strikes are in reaction to proposals by Finland’s centre-right government, led by the prime minister, Petteri Orpo of the National Coalition party, to make changes to the labour market. These would restrict employees’ rights to strike and prevent the national labour mediator from offering wage increases that exceed those received by export sectors and cuts to unemployment benefits.
The strikes come amid a febrile political atmosphere. The second round of Finland’s presidential elections will take place on 11 February after Alexander Stubb of the National Coalition party and Pekka Haavisto, a member of the Green party running as an independent, both qualified on Sunday.
The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) and the Finnish Confederation of Professionals (STTK), two of the unions that called the strikes, urged the government to immediately abandon the planned cuts and changes, which they say will lead to a huge rise in inequality.
Jarkko Eloranta, the president of the SAK, said: “The first cuts affecting the unemployed have already taken effect and the government is already preparing further measures. Weaker job security, unpaid sick leave and restrictions on the right to strike are just around the corner. The attack on employee rights will enable a massive increase of social inequality in Finland.”
The president of the STTK, Antti Palola, said: “The government reforms of employment conditions are wholly motivated by ideology and entirely lacking in verified impacts on employment or the national economy. It is quite incredible that the government is choosing to ignore assessments of the impacts of those reforms and popular opinion.”
Ulla Liukkunen, a professor of labour law at the University of Helsinki, said the scale of the strike in terms of participation and breadth of sectors signalled “a broad front that is not satisfied with the government’s policy”.
She added: “This comes as no surprise, given the current government programme, which weakens workers’ protection. The way in which the reforms have been pushed forward has been fast moving, and the way in which the reforms under way have been prepared [are] a departure from the tradition of well-established tripartite law-making on which Finnish labour law system is built. The Nordic labour market model has been one of stability, which is valued by all, and the present situation is worrying.”
The Guardian has contacted the Finnish government for comment.
