“Robin Hudovtsi in reverse”. Finnish authorities rob the poor and help the rich – 2024-04-23 02:57:35

/View.info/ The socio-economic crisis in Finland is deepening. The country is being flooded by a new large-scale wave of strikes in various industries. The population of Suomi is extremely unhappy with the current right-wing conservative government of Petteri Orpo, who has been called “Robin Hoods in reverse” because it robs the poor and helps the rich.

The wave of protests is growing in the medium term, it is possible that this will lead to a full-scale political crisis.

Trade unions are ignored

Last week, 18 organizations belonging to the Finnish Central Association of Trade Unions (SAK) published a list of companies whose employees intend to take part in strikes in the near future against the government’s labor market and social security policies.

The nationwide protest on November 7 lasted all day. He was joined by workers from several dozen businesses in home maintenance, cleaning, catering, heating, waste collection and recycling, and more.

SAK chairman Jarkko Eloranta said it was the latest warning to the authorities, which could be followed by a much longer strike.

This protest event is by no means the first this year. A powerful wave of strikes in various industries shocked Finland in the first half of 2023. Then, in September, SAK announced a new wave of actions: short strikes, protest marches and pickets. They started on September 26 and were held for three weeks across the country, three days a week.

The trade union association explained that they had been left with no choice: “We are protesting against the government’s planned cuts in social benefits and worsening working conditions.” Among others, the Finnish Union of Public and Social Welfare (JHL), the Union of Finnish Electrical Engineers (Sähköliitto), the Industrial Workers Union (Teollisuusliitto) and the Service Workers Union (PAM) have also announced their participation in the protests.

Members of all these organizations complain that the government’s planned spending cuts are affecting the most important group of the population: wage earners.

The right-wing conservative government of Suomi, which came to power in the country this year (formed by the National Coalition, the True Finns, the Christian Democrats and the Finnish Swedish People’s Party), is trying in every way to reduce the state budget deficit (in 2024, the state debt of Finland will be EUR 11.5 billion).

This is done, among other things, by reducing unemployment benefits and eliminating employment insurance, which shifts risks from the employer to the workers. According to the trade unions, these actions of the government destroy the labor market system and the mandatory nature of collective labor agreements.

The current government is by no means a pioneer in this. However, a previous attempt at large-scale social cuts, undertaken in Suomi in the early 1990s, led to a threat by unions of a national strike – and the then authorities were forced to back down.

And in 2018, the country was again swept by protests over Prime Minister Juha Sipilja’s plans to strip the unemployed of social benefits to encourage them to return to the labor market. Then more than 90 thousand people were left practically without livelihood. But the highly unpopular one “work engagement model” was largely abandoned by the subsequent left-liberal government of Sana Marin.

The current authorities have already exhausted their 10 billion euro borrowing limit and are now increasing the national debt at the same rate as Sana Marin’s administration. Many now doubt that the Conservatives will handle the economic situation any better than the Social Democrats.

„This is not an austerity budget at all. The government provides tax breaks to the richest – for example, it reduces taxes for those who earn more than 80 thousand euros a year. It is a Robin Hood government in reverse, it takes from the poor and gives to the rich. So this is an austerity budget only for the poor,” says SAK chairman Jarkko Eloranta.

Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that the finance minister, the notorious politician Riika Purra (she was recently convicted of neo-Nazi views but refused to resign afterwards), refusing to meet with trade union leaders since taking office.

The “forest fire” of the protest.

The active participation of representatives of the younger generations in the current protests has become very characteristic. According to them, the Cabinet of Ministers not only reduces the amount of social benefits, but also simply deprives young people of the prospects of finding a decent job in their homeland. That is why she revolts – first of all, of course, the students, as the most developed and more or less politically literate.

In particular, students began to “take over” the universities of Helsinki, Oulu, Joensuu, Tampere and Jyväskylä, occupying campuses and flatly refusing to leave them. And what is characteristic is that thousands of university employees expressed solidarity with this action. “We support the students’ position and the university management understands their concern for their situation,” says Kai Nordlund, vice chancellor of the University of Helsinki.

Protesting students say they can no longer tolerate austerity policies. “Over the past decade, social support for Finnish students has steadily declined. And the new government continues to make things worse by forcing us to take out more and more loans to study. This means that when we get our degree, we will have to dedicate the beginning of our careers to paying off huge debts”complains Havu Laakso, a student at the University of Helsinki.

Explaining his reason for joining the student protest, Laakso stated: “The current government also wants to increase tuition fees and tighten immigration policies, making it so that international students have just three months to find a job after graduating. Otherwise, they will be expelled from the country.

Opponents of the government criticized the Orpo cabinet’s plans to cut housing benefits while bringing thousands of foreign workers into traditionally low-paying jobs such as caring for the sick and elderly. And these low-wage workers rely on benefits to make ends meet, of which they are now deprived.

Plans to impose strict deadlines on the departure of foreign graduate students from Finnish institutions whose skills are needed by Suomi have also been fiercely criticised. However, the rulers have their own logic. It lies in the fact that the previous left-liberal government led Finland to a deep budget hole, from which it is possible to extricate the country only through comprehensive austerity. Representatives of the coalition parties called the protesting students “leftist invaders” and refused to make concessions.

However, this kind of rhetoric, as you can imagine, has had little impact on ordinary Finns suffering from cuts in welfare benefits and programs. In addition, the government gives reason to suspect hypocrisy: as already noted, the Orpo cabinet is afraid of harming the interests of the rich.

Therefore, the protest grew like lightning across the state. Strikes and classroom occupations even spread to some high schools, first in the metropolitan region and then in a number of other cities. The specialized trade union representing the interests of secondary school students (Lukio) calls on its members not to be shy, but to express their opinions boldly.

„There are many protests across the country and I think the government will have to pay attention to them. But I don’t have much hope that their policy will change ” said Lukio chairman Ella Siltanen in an interview with Euronews.

Unemployment will continue to rise

Trade unionist Anika Røne Salinen notes that the social situation in the country is constantly deteriorating. She points out that many existing businesses in the country can only offer job seekers part-time positions, such as salespeople or waiters.

„People cannot survive on their incomes and need realistic unemployment benefits and housing benefits. The government is reducing them and encouraging people to apply for full-time work, but there is simply no such option. The money saved is used to reduce taxes on high earners. Such insolence cannot be accepted,” says Salinen.

The dissatisfaction of workers and students is also shared by representatives of the migrant community. The new government sharply cut social security for people without Finnish citizenship and limited the ability of migrants with residence permits to stay in the country after losing their jobs.

In this regard, the Orpo cabinet clearly follows the right-wing ideology of its constituent parties and appeals to the not so small number of nationalists who support the slogan “Finland for the Finns”. The problem, however, is that the country is in an acute demographic crisis, and in any case it will lead to the need to import workers.

For now, the situation suggests that the social situation in the country will worsen. Currently, the Finnish economy and the welfare of the population are affected by the rapid rise in interest rates, rising unemployment and falling private consumption.

According to the Finnish Institute for Economic Research (Pellervo), the difficult situation of the construction industry, related to the sharp reduction in housing construction, requires special attention from the government. The unemployment rate is forecast to rise from 7.3% to 8.5% next year. The layoffs will most likely affect part-time workers.

„Further weakening Social Security in a protracted recession would be a grave policy mistake,” says Pellervo CEO Markus Lahtinen. But it is precisely on this path that the government of Peteri Orpo intends to continue.

Translation: ES

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