A new notice of industrial action for the university sector

The main contracting organizations of the university sector, the Negotiation Organization for Public Sector Professionals JUKO, the Federation of Salaried Employees Pardia and the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL have issued a new notice of industrial action to the National Conciliator's Office and to the employer in question today, February 20.

The targeted industrial action will take place as a strike at six universities and the normal schools on March 7. 2018 from 0:00 to 24:00, unless a conclusion is reached in the negotiations by March 6.

The universities participating in the strike:

• Aalto-University,
• Hanken,
• Tampere University,
• Tampere University of Technology,
• University of the Arts Helsinki,
• Vaasa University.

All members of the Negotiation Organization for Public Sector Professionals JUKO, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL and the Federation of Salaried Employees Pardia working at the university, falling within the scope of collective agreement, will participate in the strike.

Other universities will arrange demonstrations to support the employees of the universities on strike.

Last week the main contracting organizations of the university sector issued a notice of industrial action at University of Helsinki that will take place February 28. 

Those left outside the strike:

• the necessary care for humans, animals, samples and living specimen, the on-call duty IT services (mentioned in the collective agreement section 4, paragraph 20§) and the necessary maintenance of the IT functions to the extent that is necessary for the safety of the real estate and the living specimen
• research to which a discontinuance would do significant harm to
• those working abroad or in a conference,
• doctoral candidates, opponents and thesis supervisors,
• rectors and vice rectors of the normal schools,
• the vice rectors and the representatives of the universities, the chancellor, rector, administrative director and the HR director.

The employer wants to dictate, not negotiate

The university sector has been without a collective agreement since the beginning of February. New collective agreement negotiations are not progressing because the employer has indicated contempt for its staff throughout the negotiations. At this moment, the national conciliator is mediating the conflict.

• The suggested salary increases, modest in scope, do not indicate that the valuable work performed by the staff is actually respected. Universities can afford to increase salaries whilst maintaining the current operational level as there was no deficit in the financial statement of any university in 2016. In addition, the cuts in government funding have already been compensated for by massive staff reductions.
• However, the employer is completely unwilling to discuss objectives important to employees, such as improving the status of fixed-term employees, rationalizing the use of working hours, discussing the compensation for travel time and remote work, enhancing the conditions for research and reasonable salary increases.

Despite the fact that a strike notice has been issued, negotiations naturally continue. The unions continue to hope that an agreement can be reached before any industrial action is initiated. However, if no agreement can be reached in the negotiations, and no significant progress is made, the unions are prepared to make decisions on expanding further the scope of industrial action.

We are the university!

Members will be informed of the progress of the negotiations and of the industrial action measures on JUKO's and the unions' websites, as well as via social media.

The "We are the university" spirit is required once again! #wearetheuniversity #meolemmeyliopisto

Follow information provided by JUKO using the following website and social media:
JUKO website: www.juko.fi/yliopisto
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JUKOry
Twitter: twitter.com/JUKOry   
 

For further information, please contact

Daniel Valtakari
Senior adviser
Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland TEK
Gsm: +358 40 7720 276
Email: daniel.valtakari@tek.fi