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Finnish
union surveyed its Estonian and Russian members: The typical immigrant member of Service Unions United – PAM works in retail sales, lives in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area and came to Finland from Russia or Estonia because of marriage or as a returnee. A Master’s Thesis by Virge Kama, a student at the University of Helsinki Faculty of Social Sciences reveals that some of the immigrants working in the service industries have adapted quite well to working life in Finland. A questionnaire was sent in spring 2002 to all of the members of PAM who had notified the union that their native language was a language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi. 51 per cent of these 848 members responded to the questionnaire. The questions were provided in Finnish, English and Russian. 33.7 per cent of the respondents worked in retail sales, 11.2 per cent as cleaners and 11 per cent as cooks, waiters or kitchen assistants. A total of 53 occupations were reported. 81.4 per cent of the respondents were in work, most of them in permanent, full-time jobs. According to Virge Kama, this suggests that those with a more secure situation in the labour market were more diligent in responding to the survey. This factor also affects the organising rate: immigrants who have already achieved a secure labour market situation are more likely to join a union. 69 per cent of respondents felt that they had adapted to working life in Finland either very well or well. 6 per cent considered that they had adapted very poorly or poorly. The main problems that respondents had encountered arose from the difficulty of finding employment and deficient language skills. Many respondents had also met with negative attitudes from employers and to some extent also from workmates. Virge Kama urges the union to combat ethnic discrimination and racism, observing that work to improve attitudes should focus on creating a situation in which immigrants are perceived as a resource in the workplace and in society at large, instead of a problem or threat. Expectations of the union and working life More than half of the respondents had good experiences of their union, while fewer than 3 per cent reported bad experiences. The immigrants hoped that their union would provide more information about their terms and conditions of employment in their native languages. More than 65 per cent reported that they had joined a union for access to earnings-related unemployment benefit. Their wishes were broadly similar to those of Finnish union members: more information and services. The survey findings stressed two particular objectives in working life: a good standard of pay and earnings, and security of employment. Ease and simplicity of work was the least popular of the alternative objectives suggested in the survey. The immigrants considered reducing income differentials to be the most important mission of the trade union movement. This objective was followed by reforming and democratising working life, realising full employment and improving real earnings. The weight of feeling behind the objectives proposed by immigrants in the union is increasing all the time. Immigrants make up a rising proportion of union members: by June 2003 the number of immigrant members had already increased by more than 300 compared to the situation when the survey was conducted in spring 2002. For further details please contact PAM Education Secretary Sointu Toivonen, tel. + 358 9 775 7423. |
