In 2001 seven committees of the Confederation of Finnish Trade Unions – SAK provided a versatile analysis of the future in a seminar. Researchers gave evidence indicating that public activity is eroding in many ways. This is a universal phenomenon. The only possible exceptions may be religious and "self-help" groups, and Internet-based activist groups. Political activity lacks popular appeal, and young people in particular are not interested in it.

Yet, considering the situation, the atmosphere at the seminar was rather unperturbed. Studies show that the trade union movement's public esteem in Finland remains permanently high, and the basic attitude of young people towards the unions is not only interested but positive. However, young people represent a blank slate, one researcher warned. It is very important what kind of first contact they make with the trade union movement. This raises the question how they are received at workplaces.

The results of a youth survey published by SAK in summer 2002 are encouraging. 42 per cent of the 17-29 year old interviewees claimed to be union members and 34 per cent were expecting to join when their working career began. Only 11 per cent regarded mere membership of an unemployment benefit fund as sufficient.

The overwhelmingly most important reason for organising was the defence of interests. 71 per cent of young people explained their union membership by reference to union defence of employee rights in working life. The next most important reason cited (60 per cent) was earnings-related unemployment benefit, followed (56 per cent) by union information on one's own rights. Fewer than 8 per cent claimed to have joined the union because of the force of habit and only 3 per cent out of a sense of duty.

The next challenge is to activate young people to participate in trade union activities and to take responsibility by serving as shop stewards and in other functions. In the past the political struggle was so hot that it was often difficult for young people to secure responsible positions as older unionists defended their positions and mandates. Lately political competition has become marginalised, making it easier for young people to become activists. However, one critical issue is the attractiveness of trade union activity among so many rival hobbies and interests.

In summer 2002 Tuomo Lilja, the editor of the Chemical Workers' Union magazine, assessed the situation in his own union as easier than on average. According to the union's studies, its rank and file members and shop stewards are younger than the SAK average. While there are none too many elected officials, many young members seem to be willing to take part in union training. Of the 3,000 participants at the union's summer congress, more than one-third were below 30 years of age.

As Lilja states, despite these good signs we must seriously consider the approaching upheaval and prepare for it by training, communication and organisation work. We must also remember that the image of the union and its attractiveness ultimately depends on deeds, and above all on the defence of interests.
5.2 Threats of unemployment and manpower shortage

Enterprises are hardly likely to stand by passively waiting for the retirement of 700,000 employees and the rapidly advancing risk of a labour shortage. So, what are they doing?

Unemployment in Finland seems to have stuck at a level of 9 to10 per cent and there are about 300,000 registered jobseekers, although some EU statistics show figures that have been cosmetically adjusted downwards. On 30 June 2002 there were 78,300 persons who had been continuously unemployed for more than a year. That was 6 per cent less than 12 months earlier. Of these, 36,600 had been unemployed over two years. This figure was also slightly down from the previous year. The number of people employed by various labour market subsidies was over 115,000.

When the baby boom generation retires Finland may simultaneously be threatened by both unemployment and a labour shortage, warns the Labour force 2020 -report published by the Ministry of Labour. This will occur if the labour supply fails, quantitatively or qualitatively, to match the demand in various regions. The training, trade structure and deployment of the labour force are of major significance. The report seeks to forecast changes in training needs by estimating the future trade structure, having regard to continuing technological progress.

As the report notes, it is difficult to estimate how large a proportion of the jobs current held by those soon to retire could be taken over by those who are presently unemployed. According to the Ministry of Labour, the number of long-term unemployed has recently fallen slightly, whereas the number of persons who are successively out of work for short periods has grown. In general it seems that the higher the educational and skills demands are, the more difficult it is to find replacement labour among the registered unemployed. Employees in the chemical, paper and energy industries have rather specialised vocational training.

Another aspect is psychological. Registered unemployed jobseekers are easily stigmatised, encouraging employers to seek other solutions. A study by the University of Tampere and the International Labour Organisation – ILO concluded that the difficulty of the long-time unemployed in securing employment is not caused by their unwillingness to work. It is largely due to employer attitudes, whereby even a couple of months' unemployment and ageing may make a person unfit for work. The status of the long-time unemployed has also been influenced by competition for the same jobs from many other groups, such as people changing vocation, students, the under-employed, and persons returning from family leave. All of these are already in a better position in the labour market than the long-term unemployed. A good education provides the ability to change and be flexible.

The basic prognosis is that the maximum size of labour force and employment will be reached in 2005. A fall will then begin, and the size of both the labour force and the employed will decrease by about 10,000 people per annum until the end of the projected period. It is estimated that when the baby boom generation begins to retire 20,000 jobs will be left vacant every year, a large proportion of these in the technical trades.

Despite the insecure economic outlook, a study by the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers (TT) in February-March 2002 suggested that 600 enterprises believed they would hire a total of 70,000 new employees within a year. They believed that they would maintain the same level for at least next couple of years. This would mean 60 per cent growth compared with 2001. The need for skilled labour has fallen, but the enterprises plan to hire more school leavers and trainees. There were 32,000 jobs available for people straight out of school, which was 10 per cent less than a year before. Most new jobs were to be offered in engineering and in the pulp and paper industries. Often new employees are hired to replace retirees or persons changing job. Business expansion also creates a demand for new employees. In particular, there is demand for skilled employees in the technical trades. Enterprises have voiced their fears of a shortage of skilled workers in shopfloor jobs, as vocational training is failing to attract enough recruits.          

In March 2002 the confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers (TT) called on politicians to initiate an active immigration policy. According to the TT, there is a need for 70,000 new employees per annum but only 50,000 are arriving.

It is possible that over the next ten years tens of thousands of skilled and unskilled workers will come to Finland from abroad, and that enterprises will actively recruit foreign labour. Even this may not be enough, however, and the threat of labour shortage remains. Managers may have to consider relocating production away from Finland to regions where labour is available.

Against this background the publication "Sensitivities in the future of work", published in 2000 by the Finnish government's economic research institute (VATT), is surprising. While the study presents an interesting outlook, it nevertheless reaches the following conclusion. "Although restructuring due to technological development and changes in the international division of labour will continue, there are reasons to believe that the character of work and the labour market will not change decisively over the next 30 years."

Forecasting the economic future, even for next twelve months, has proved difficult. VATT's scientific conclusion is astonishing in view of continual enterprise restructuring, the debate on the role and structure of the public sector, EU enlargement and the opening of international borders. In my opinion the character of working life, work and the labour market in Finland will change decisively already during the next 10 years.

5.3 Does industry attract young people?

The future labour shortage is partly a matter of training young people in various trades, as opposed to the current need for labour as such.

Secondary school leavers currently have an average of 1.5 places available to begin studying at vocational and other educational institutions. About 60,000 babies are born each year. The previous government's goal was that by 2004 there would be 49,000 vacancies in vocational training, 25,000 in polytechnics and 19,000 in the universities. That makes a total of 93,000 vacancies, exceeding clearly the need.

Given the option, the fashionable and comfortable trades attract young students, even though the actual job prospects are poor. Studies in communications and the arts regularly attract ten times more applicants than there are places available. The metal, construction and transport industries, on the other hand, suffer from a shortage of students. The government and public authorities are unwilling to intervene at this stage, however, and have pinned their hopes on the power of persuasion.

Economic cycles have an impact on the popularity of various industries. News of mass redundancies has shifted the emphasis away from the IT and telecommunications industries towards traditional industry, banks and business services.

A spring 2002 study by the financial sector magazine Talouselämä showed that salaried employees classed information technology, business services and telecommunications as the most interesting industries. These employees assessed how pleased they would be to move into these industries. In fourth place came the pulp and paper industry with a rating of 7.2 on a scale from 4 to 10. Energy production scored a slightly below average 6.5. The chemical industry scored 6.2, coming close to the bottom end together with the public sector and the textile and garment industry.

The most attractive employers in Finland were Nokia, Finnair and Tietoenator, followed by UPM-Kymmene, Kone, Vaisala, Stora Enso, Fortum and Orion.

The picture changes somewhat when interviewing young people. It is a safe bet that the "nerdy" sector has retained its popularity despite all difficulties. The appeal and public image of smoke-stack industry, on the other hand, is not good. The pulp and paper industry received poor marks in a European opinion survey published in spring 2002 by the European Commission. Most young people responded negatively to a question about whether they would they be interested in working in the pulp and paper industry. In their opinion the industry is repulsive, polluting and malodorous. The work was considered monotonous and demanding of little skill.

Actual practise indicates otherwise - and in Finland young people are better informed of the character and benefits of the pulp and paper industry. Last year one thousand young people applied for just 30 vacancies at the UPM-Kymmene vocational school. 900 applied for just 24 places at M-real's Silva vocational school. These figures indicate that there is no lack of applicants and no cause for concern.

In Autumn 2002 fewer than 50,000 young people applied to study at vocational schools, which was a 5 per cent fall from the previous year. Interest was expressed in the beauty care, leisure-time activity, communication and visual arts fields, even though the labour supply outstrips the employing capacity of these industries. 400 vacancies in engineering studies were left unfilled. In industrial and transport studies only the paper and chemical industries clearly had more applicants than available places.

5.4 Enlargement to the East – no migrant labour invasion in sight

Not all industries are equally attractive. Predictions vary, but it is clear that to prevent labour shortages in the medium term Finland will need tens of thousands, if not as many as 100,000 foreigners. The Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers – TT has called on the government to adopt an active labour force policy based on the needs of working life. Industry needs a competent and educated labour force. Therefore, TT feels, it is not enough to depend on the random arrival of refugees.

Finland is currently the home of about 100,000 foreigners, comprising 2 per cent of the population. This proportion is the smallest in the European Union; a fact that would not essentially alter even if this figure were to double. Finland is the most monocultural country in Europe. 13 per cent of the rank and file members of the paperworkers' union in Sweden are immigrants, and the corresponding figure for the Industrifacket trade union is as high as 19 per cent. This union organises such sectors as the chemical, rubber, glass and textile workers.

On 1 May 2004 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania become EU Member States. Their labour force will not immediately begin to move freely, however, as most of the old EU Member States, Finland included, have taken the opportunity offered by the Union to apply a transition period of at least two years. If the labour market is driven to disorder, then this transition period may be extended to five or even seven years.

Thousands of Estonians have been working in Finland since long before EU membership was on the horizon for this country. There are also about 10,000 Russians living in Finland.

Interviews conducted by Gallup Finland indicate that half of the Estonians claim to be interested in working abroad, 10 per cent of them in Finland. 5 per cent of Estonians consider it probable that they might work in Finland occasionally, while 2 per cent would be willing to settle in the country on a longer-term basis. In absolute terms this means 55,000 and 22,000 Estonians. The Ministry of Labour estimates that only 1,500 Estonians per annum will move to Finland.

Receiving and integrating new citizens into Finnish society is an extremely important task in which shop stewards and their trade unions have a firm role to play. Foreign employees must be organised in the unions, otherwise the organising rate will fall and bargaining power will be undermined. Foreigners must be welcomed into the working community and even into Finnish homes. Finnish working conditions must be applied to work in Finland. Even the employer associations agree on this point, though law-breaking entrepreneurs continue to operate. These must be monitored by both the authorities and by the unions and their activists.

In Sweden the industrial workers' trade unions intend to invest in activating immigrants to serve in union policymaking bodies. Although 10 to 20 per cent of the rank and file were born abroad, there has been no immigrant presence on the Board of the paperworkers' union, nor among the union's officials. 8 per cent of the board members of the Industrifacket trade union have a foreign background, as do 5 per cent of the union's officials. However, promoting multiculturalism at workplaces and in union bodies is firmly on the agenda.

At the same time we must not forget to work in the near-abroad. The organising rate in Estonia has collapsed in the decade from the end of the Soviet Era: from a theoretical 100 per cent to about 15 per cent, and the pay level is one-sixth of the level in Finland. The situation in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland is roughly the same. Labour-intensive operations have increasingly been relocated to the Baltic countries, as well as to Poland where the population is 40 million. The new EU Member States are fully entitled to receive foreign investment and to lift their standard of living. Nevertheless, it would be better if this development took place through genuine economic growth and increasing demand, instead of through relocation of production operations to lower-cost countries.

The Finnish unions must provide resources for increasing the organising rate in the Baltic countries and creating bargaining positions there. The Finnish chemical workers' union is co-financing a survey that, over the next few years, will seek to reorganise the Estonian chemical workers. The Finnish paperworkers' union has sent its officials, with encouraging results, to assist in organising work at Estonian paper mills. The Finnish electricity workers' union is collaborating with the Estonian energy workers' union.

It is worthwhile increasing investment in this work, even though progress sometimes seems to be hopelessly slow. The burden of the Soviet system is still apparent. In the past it was the job of the unions to cajole employees into implementing the five-year plans and to distribute vacations at sanatoria. These sanatoria have gradually been privatised, and the ministries no longer dictate wages and the salaries. The unions must find a reply to the questions of young employees regarding why they should join the union and what kind of benefits membership would provide.

Besides organising, the most important function is to invest in improving the credibility of the Estonian unions as bargaining partners in relation to employers and the State. The European Union is financing projects in all of the Baltic countries to promote social dialogue and collective bargaining.

One approach is to use the subsidiaries of Finnish enterprises. Estonian shop stewards rather uniformly testify that Finnish employers at least passively oppose organisation and bargaining with the unions. The enterprises are happy with the poor level of collective power of their employees, the lack of collective agreements and regulation of working conditions only by contracts of employment. The Finnish and the Estonian unions should work together to develop various solutions binding enterprises to comply with certain ground rules and creating mechanisms for supervising enterprise behaviour.

Co-operation with the Finnish unions is essential, as local resources are limited. This work is urgent, as 2004 is almost upon us.

5.5 Finland becomes a subsidiary company economy

The January 2001 decision of Stora Enso to close a papermaking machine in Summa, Finland, another machine in Belgium, and a coating machine in Sweden was indicative of a trend. The reason for the closure was the construction of a new newsprint machine and an SC-paper machine at Landerbrugge in Belgium. For the employees at the Summa paper mill this covertly prepared decision came as a complete surprise, especially as the utility ratio of the old, repeatedly enhanced machine was 90 per cent. At that time there were 550 employees in Summa, and the closure was estimated to affect 150 of them. As long ago as the merger of Stora and Enso in 1999 it was announced that 400 to 500 employees from administration and marketing would be made redundant. It was reckoned that the merger generated a benefit of EUR 760 million, as manufacturing of various products was concentrated on fewer machines. Stora Enso has subsequently also invested in Finland but concerns remain.

Head offices have been relocated away from Finland at a rapid rate following corporate acquisitions and mergers. Telia took Sonera to Sweden, following the earlier departure of Nordea. Scottish & Newcastle bought Hartwall, and General Electric is seeking EU approval for its Instrumentarium acquisition. Stora Enso's directors manage the enterprise from its London office, even though for the moment the nominal Head Office is in Helsinki. The trend is towards gradually relocating head office functions to other countries.

According to an inquiry published in autumn 2002 by the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers - TT, Finland's status as a country of corporate group establishment has deteriorated especially because of high income taxation. Enterprises claim that it is difficult to get directors and experts from abroad. Moreover, Finns who have moved abroad are unwilling to return to their homeland. Foreigners find the Finnish language difficult, prices are high and Finland's location is problematic.

Finland is not alone in this kind of a situation. Almost one-third of Sweden's 250 largest enterprises have relocated their head offices out of Sweden. Swedish enterprises have also been sold abroad at an accelerating tempo. If corporate acquisitions continue at the present tempo, then the extreme expert estimate is that by 2015 Sweden's private industry will be entirely owned by foreign investors.

At the end of 2001 Finnish enterprises had 315,000 employees abroad. In a single year this number increased by 27,000. Pulp and paper industry enterprises have 73,500 overseas employees, while chemical industry enterprises have 22,800.

In spring 2002 the consultancy firm Ernst & Young asked the directors of 200 large international enterprises what countries they would select as the location of their head offices, factories, research centers and other places of business. For people in the Nordic region the results were shocking, though not entirely unexpected. Finland was not separately offered as an alternative, but the interest that the country enjoyed is likely to be similar to the low ratings achieved by Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Favoured countries of large enterprise directors for various operations (%)

Source: Ernst & Young / Le Soir, Belgium 26 February 2002

The directors feel that an ideal enterprise would have its head office in Brussels, factories in Prague, R&D centre at Sophia-Antipolis in the South of France, administration and finance in London, call center in Dublin, planning and design in Milan and storehouse and logistics in Rotterdam.

This survey was informal, and business decisions on location are influenced by several factors. Nevertheless, reorganisations are following this trend and the tempo is accelerating.

5.6 European works councils must be supported and supervised

Amid the labyrinth of enterprise structures it is important for unions and shop stewards to maintain direct and effective links to Group management and the unions of the parent company wherever these operate. This is where unions should focus their resources.

In 1994 the EU created a new tool for the trade union movement: the European Works Councils (EWC). There are currently about 700 EWCs, with more than 200 in the chemical, paper and energy sectors.

EWC practise is varied. In the most modest cases activities are limited to a single annual meeting at which the enterprise management lectures on the history of the enterprise and its prospects while the representatives sit passively as audience. In the best cases EWCs form an international union network capable of exchanging information between shop stewards in various units of the enterprise and acting together when necessary.

The EWCs are, however, operating in an area that has traditionally been the domain of the trade unions and of their local chapters and shop stewards. The low organising rate in many countries and the participation of unorganised employees in EWCs increase the danger that EWCs will begin to lead a life of their own. In fact, even many powerful local activists who are organised in the unions are hoping for this with no sense of danger.

As such, it was to be expected that once the common currency was introduced all kinds of comparisons between benefits would increase, and that pressure for harmonisation would gradually mount. It is also to be expected that discussion of issues covered by traditional collective bargaining would increase at EWCs and in union networks, regardless of the views of the unions. When the employer refers to labour costs in various factories it is natural that employees should seek to make their own pay comparisons. The same applies to working hour systems and other benefits.

This evolution will inevitably lead, on some issues and in some enterprises, to some kind of general agreement applying to the entire corporate Group. It is likely that international agreement and harmonisation of norms will begin with easier matters, such as occupational safety, environmental control and training. The unions must, however, carefully consider how EWCs and international union networks that are based on EWCs will remain under the control of unions and organised labour.

In his study "European safeguarding of interests" (2002) Jorma Löhman analyses the crucial question of whether a European Works Council can negotiate a detailed collective agreement. The European engineering industry trade union federation - EMF has endeavoured to draw a distinction between the role of the EWC and traditional collective bargaining. Partly for practical reasons it has accepted agreements, negotiated by councils controlled by organised labour on a limited range of issues such as job security in situations of financial restructuring.

Löhman is of the view that in no country are EWCs controlled by the unions. To a certain extent they are understood as a rival structure, particularly now that they have begun to conclude agreements. EWCs may become independent participants and may approve agreements on standards that fall below those of industry-wide collective agreements. Negative competition between enterprises may even arise. The consciousness and organising level of the employees may become significant factors.

Trade unions need a serious relationship with EWCs and must integrate them into the system for defending interests. All unions must analyse the significance of EWC activities for the union's work of defending interests, and must rethink the division of responsibility and human resources. Trade union EWC co-ordinators need to be trained, and they must be well-versed in EWC issues. They must take an interest in these issues, and must have enough time to manage matters in this field.

5.7 Towards European trade union coordination

A great deal of coffee has been consumed over the years at meetings of the European trade union federations. The introduction of the common currency and monetary policy is finally forcing the trade union movement to discuss seriously co-ordinating cross-border collective bargaining.

The European Central Bank - ECB, which controls monetary policy, has defined a maximum inflation rate of two per cent as price stability. If this is exceeded, then interest rates are increased. During the unfavourable business cycle the bank has been forced to ignore this definition, but it already takes care to monitor collective bargaining keenly. The 6.5 per cent pay demand of the IG Metall trade union last spring, coinciding with Germany's retarded economic growth, stimulated the ECB into a cautious and polite intervention .

How will European bargaining proceed?

SAK President Lauri Ihalainen delivered a significant speech last year on European collective agreements. Although national collective agreements remain primary, Ihalainen believed that European level bargaining could proceed in four areas:

• The basis of staff and pay policy will be unified in multinational corporations.
• Industry-wide forms of co-operation will be sought, especially in the transport and maritime sectors.
• Regional co-ordination will increase and diversify.
• Recommendation-like agreements between European labour market partners will increase.

It will be a long time before collective agreements in the chemical, paper and energy sectors are concluded in Brussels. Instead we may surmise that affiliated trade unions will begin, within the European union federation - EMCEF, to define common goals such as working hour reduction to the French 35-hour level. Under its new General Secretary the EMCEF is turning its attention towards co-ordination. A data bank of collective agreements is under construction.

Future co-ordination will focus on the prospects for common pay claims or for claims bound to the "European pay equation". This means estimating pay rises in terms of potential inflation plus productivity growth. This concept is referred to in documents by the ETUC and the metalworkers federation - EMF.

Will "social dialogue" make the transition from glorified coffee party to real activity? In the energy sector the unions and industry organisations have engaged in good-natured co-operation at European level since the early 1990s. There are now also signs of progress in the chemical industry, where last year a European organisation resembling an employers' federation was established.

But is the position of the trade union movement simultaneously deteriorating? Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of jobs are disappearing from European industry each year. The organising rate is slowly but surely falling in many countries. In France and in Spain it now stands at only about 10 per cent. At what stage will the employers really question the legitimacy of the trade union movement? We must assume that all unions are interested in organising, including unions that are accustomed to power originating mainly from a large public sector. Applying resources to increasing the organising rate and maintaining it is one of the most important fundamental functions of the trade union movement. It should be taken more seriously in the Nordic countries and elsewhere.

5.8 From global framework agreements to global enterprises

Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are fashionable expressions. The recent megascandals at enterprises in the USA and in Europe have awakened even the most hardcore liberals to the fact that it is not enough for enterprises merely to focus on finances, maximise profits and increase stock values to new heights. An enterprise should also comply with the law or even behave well.

The trade union movement is interested in both control and responsibility. In the Enron and Andersen cases enterprises broke the law or otherwise behaved in an unethical manner. The outcome was that tens of thousands of employees lost their jobs when the house of cards crushed into bankruptcy. Sales may also collapse when an enterprise is caught polluting the environment or using child labour. When deciding what to buy nowadays consumers are increasingly monitoring the behaviour of enterprises. The basic values of the labour movement include defending the weaker party, whether in Finland, France or Indonesia.

Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility are separate, but to some extent parallel concepts. In the Anglo-Saxon world the former mainly refers to guidance by enterprise owners. In continental Europe it also includes guidance and monitoring by other interest groups.

The trade union movement shares this concept. Besides regular negotiation and co-operation mechanisms, staff must be represented in the enterprise administration at as high a level as possible. The representatives must be entitled to receive all essential information, to participate in the consideration of important strategic matters, and to express their views on the proposals of enterprise management before decisions are made. Globalisation of enterprise structures often means that representatives from various countries must be selected for adequate administrative bodies. In the case of the Swedish-Finnish telecommunications operator TeliaSonera, a conflict has unfortunately arisen between various staff groups. Even though there is no obstacle preventing the enterprise management from selecting a representative of the Finnish staff to serve on the board of the Swedish parent company, all three staff representatives are Swedish.

The area of Corporate Social Responsibility is a confusing one. There is a general opinion that an enterprise has some kind of economic, social and environmental responsibility. The trade union movement is especially interested in social responsibility, which incorporates the rights and welfare of employees.

The confusion arises because of the plethora of indicators that have been created in a short period of time to measure social responsibility. These indicators compete and partly overlap, and ironically, this area has itself grown into a profitable business. The following are the most important initiatives and normative bases for regulating and monitoring multinational enterprises:

• The guidelines of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
• The OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises
• The Global Compact of the United Nations
• The SA 8000 Standard
• The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting system
• Social audits made by auditing companies
• The in-house value declarations of the enterprise 
• Framework agreements concluded by large enterprises and global trade unions

The problem with most initiatives is that they are characteristically recommendations entirely lacking an impartial monitoring mechanism. The trade union movement therefore focuses on the last option on the list: the framework agreements (or ethical agreements), whereby the enterprise commits itself to guarantee its employees certain basic rights in all operations around the world.

Only some twenty global framework agreements have been concluded so far. The largest signatories are the automotive industry giants DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen. Both of these have more than 350,000 employees. Most of the global unions have determined framework agreements to be one of their major goals.

The experience of the first few years of framework agreements have mainly been favourable. The agreements typically cover the basic conventions of the ILO. This means rights of organisation and collective bargaining, and the prohibition of child labour, forced labour and discrimination. The Statoil agreement (Norway) facilitated the solution to a major conflict in the USA, benefiting both parties. Ethical behaviour by IKEA (Sweden) subcontractors in Eastern Europe was secured through joint monitoring trips by the parties.

Over the next few years dozens more agreements are expected. The resources of the trade unions and international organisations alone will not suffice to monitor these effectively. On the other hand, some initiatives, such as GRI reporting, have proved rather useful. The toolbox approach is therefore gaining in popularity within the global union organisations. In various situations the choice is between a combination of various tools resulting in adequate monitoring of essential norms.

Finland's unions should bear their own share of responsibility in pursuing the goals of their global organisations. Finland's global industrial enterprises need their own agreements. The joint monitoring mechanism is undoubtedly useful in improving fellow-feeling, in managing risks and in preventing conflicts. A global framework agreement takes nothing from national and local bargaining, but adds a new regulatory level above these and above the European Works Council, that is relevant to the field of global operations.

5.9 Are we ready?

Changes in the operating environment require the trade unions to apply new thinking and draw new conclusions. Quick answers to the following basic questions should be sought:

• How must union structures and modes of action be changed in order retain the ability to defend the interests of the rank and file under current and future conditions?
• Does the union possess all of the skills (knowledge of languages, expertise in issues, personal contacts with fellow unions) at central office and enterprise level to deal with all of the matters that seem to be necessary in the light of the foregoing analysis?
• How should the union recruit, train and reorganise the work so that new strategic points of view could be converted into active operations?

The answers to these questions will to some extent vary according to the enterprise structure of the industry and the trade union. The starting point, however, seems to be clear. "International matters" are no longer something that can be delegated to the Secretary for International Affairs, as was the case in the closed economy of the 1970s. International borders are now wide open and this affects Finnish industrial employees with increasing urgency as each day passes.

The behaviour of chemical, paper and energy sector enterprises in Europe and in the wider world must therefore be understood as the starting point for strategic planning and the organisation of operations by the unions. One of their most urgent tasks is to internalise the international viewpoint and make this a natural part of the role of every union President, official and shop steward in international enterprises.

A Chinese proverb holds: "When the winds of change blow, some construct walls, others windmills".

The challenges of the New Europe are challenges of the new world. Walls can no longer be raised by any Don Quijote, even with the help of Sancho Panza's army.