Finland: Working immigrants are joining labour unions at an accelerating pace

Finland: Working immigrants are joining labour unions at an accelerating pace


According to the largest labour federation, the SAK, roughly one third of immigrant workers have joined unions.


"In some sectors, half of foreign-born employees have joined, but I'd estimate that 30 to 40 percent of working immigrants belong to unions," says the SAK's immigration expert, Helena Hämäläinen.


This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog - islamineurope.blogspot.com


The unions say that the issues facing these workers are largely the same as among other union members, but that they do have to intervene more often in cases of attempted exploitation of foreign workers -- especially those who do not speak Finnish or Swedish.

"There are employers who take advantage of foreign labourers," says Hämäläinen. "There are a lot of these cases, depending on the sector, but for instance in the construction field."

Nearly 17,000 immigrants are now union members, up by some 4,000 in the past two years.

Source: YLE (English)

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