Four service industry unions merged into PAM

The new service industry union PAM (Service Unions United) has over 200,000 members. The national organisations merged are the Union of Commercial Workers (129,700 members), the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union (48,000), the Caretakers Union (13,400) and the Technical and Special Trades Union (10,400). A total of 260 employees works in PAM's headquarters and in its 19 regional offices. 90 of these serves the various regions, 70 works in the union's unemployment fund and the remaining 100 are based in its Helsinki headquarters.

Draft articles of association were prepared back in the spring to enable 300 branches of the four unions to reorganise their affairs harmoniously. Elections at the founding meeting also went smoothly. Maj-Len Remahl, the former President of the Commercial Workers Union, got the support of policy makers in the other unions in her bid to become PAM's first President. Jorma Kallio was elected for the post of first Vice President.

The branches of the four unions are not due to merge at this stage. ''We are in no hurry to merge the branches. This may become an attractive alternative later, especially in smaller associations, but even here this could be done only after a thorough discussion of the pros and cons at all levels,'' says Mr Kallio.

Four unions were parties of 70 collective agreements

One indicator of the complexity of the merger is that the four unions were parties to a total 70 collective agreements. A dozen of these are among the most important national agreements. Jorma Kallio stresses that one long-term goal is to reduce the number of agreements by creating a common basic agreement covering most of the rank file. This basic agreement would be accomplished with specialised industry-specific agreements on wages, salaries and working hours.

On the other side of the negotiating table PAM will face five national employer federations.

The merged union covers, for example, types of work in large supermarkets that until now have been represented by two or three unions. ''We shall now be able to have a more coherent collective bargaining policy than was previously possible with a combination of unions'', Kallio notes.

''Problems are caused by employers seeking to push the unions into a race for the bottom rung caused by a preference for the cheapest tenders'', Kallio explains. ''When preparing PAM's labour market debut we have had fruitful discussions with the State and municipal workers' trade unions.''

The two minor parties in the merger will definitely gain from improved opportunities to play a role at European level. ''Until now their resources have been too limited for proper monitoring and influence on European level matters'' Kallio points out.

Juhani Artto
Trade Union News from Finland
juhani.artto@kaapeli.fi