Why I don’t belong to a union…
Reason #3,452,053: My yearly dues will go towards some politician’s campaign…
Matti Tukiainen, head of the member services department of the organisation, noted on Wednesday that the SAK’s main decision-making body has taken a unanimous stand in favour of the re-election of Tarja Halonen.
The SAK ’s investment in the elections is to be in the tens of thousands of euros. Tukiainen says that a few thousand will be spent on President Halonen’s behalf.
Notice that it’s Tarja’s old employer. SAK, STTK and AKAVA are not the same, and I think you’d be more AKAVA than SAK.
Comment by sepisp — Fri, Sep 23rd, 2005 @ 3:44 pm
“Most of the money earmarked by the SAK for the Presidential elections is to be focused on persuading people to vote, and not on support for any specific candidate.”
Well you read the news from your point of view.
One could say “I’m not a member of a union because i don’t belive in democracy”
Comment by anon — Fri, Sep 23rd, 2005 @ 6:18 pm
Here’s a fun little Finnish article on Nokia’s union busting activities. The best thing is that your superiors have authority to reverse a doctor’s diagnosis (with their huge medical expertise), canceling your sick leave. The targets of the bullying are not SAK members, but rather YTN/AKAVA members.
Comment by Tarja Rosenberg — Fri, Sep 23rd, 2005 @ 7:06 pm
I forgot to mention that they require the union reps to report their all activities on a minute-to-minute basis, including visits to the loo.
Comment by Tarja Rosenberg — Fri, Sep 23rd, 2005 @ 7:08 pm
Their last campaign to persuade people to vote was actually quite funny. They had this robber baron capitalist raving around bitching to his people and announcing lay-offs. In the end there was a text “He Votes”. Then Kokoomus was stupid enough to declare touche by critisizing that the ad was directly from 1918.
Yes, I was member of SAK once through KTV and I think they should stick to their core business and stay out of general politics. Especially, as in some workplaces you are de facto forced to join the union.
For about ten years I didn’t belong to any union, as I thought the white collar unions were not doing their job. Practically, I would have been in the same union with my boss and I got the feeling that the bigger bosses just wiped the WC floor with the white collar unions. It is fine, if you are young and your boss is OK, but I noticed my tolerance for the Mulqvist bosses and the chances of finding a new job were decreasing with the age, so last spring I joined TEK to be able to at least call the union lawyer, if I’m bullshitted the Nokia way some day. (I don’t work there anymore, but just had the opportunity to see a couple of friends Nokia career turning into a real life ‘Apprentice’ show.)
Comment by Antti (the redneck one) — Fri, Sep 23rd, 2005 @ 10:40 pm
The problem of the unions is not about organizing the workforce and looking after the workers’ rights. It is about the union leaders playing politicians. Dear anon, democracy is about the people electing a parlament to make decisions. Not about the desire for power of the union leaders. And as a hint, use your name if you want to be taken seriously.
Comment by Mikko — Sun, Sep 25th, 2005 @ 12:10 am
I was just beeing sarcastic. Not to be taken seriously.
Union supports Tarja -> reason for not join a union.
Union persuading people to vote -> reason for not join a union.
I was trying to point out that people read different things from the same article.
Comment by anon — Sun, Sep 25th, 2005 @ 10:15 am