Finland without immigrants? – No thanks, Government!

Finland needs immigrants and more employees. The new Government wants to make a lot of bad changes to the rules of working life. JHL wants each employee to have the same rights to a good life. Immigrant Activities Specialist Linda Savonen writes about this in her blog post. The original blog post is written in plain Finnish.

In a film called “A Day Without a Mexican”, the state of California in the United States wakes up to a new morning, but its Latino population has vanished.

The whole society is a mess. Traffic is standing still, food runs out, shops are closed and trash remains on the streets.

Other Californians finally understand how important the work is that the vanished Mexicans did.

Nothing works without them, and people want them back fast.

What if we try to imagine a similar situation here in Finland?

How would my regular working day go without immigrants?

My bus might not come in the morning. The nearby kiosk would certainly be closed.

Even my work partner would have vanished – help!

We need immigrants

I can tell that the new Government of Finland hasn’t seen the film in question.

The Government doesn’t realise how important immigrants are to Finland and native-born Finns, now and in the future.

Employees, spouses, friends, our children’s friends from day care, neighbours, bus drivers, kiosk keepers, doctors and break room co-workers – you’re important to us.

Thank you for moving to Finland!

Same rules for everyone

At Trade Union JHL, we don’t accept the fact that there are different rules for different people in working life.

Luckily, we’re strong together – union is strength.

We know that many employees are already now afraid of defending themselves at work:

What happens if I’m fired and I no longer have a job?

Is it better to be quiet, although I know that the employer is doing wrong?

It can also be difficult to work if you don’t understand the Finnish language well.

Now, the Government wants to make working life even more difficult – and unfair – to employees.

The Government’s plan isn’t fair

If the Government’s new programme is put to practice, employers will get more power.

In the future, it will be easier for employers to dismiss employees.

“Oh, you don’t wanna work overtime today? Swapping tomorrow’s shift isn’t alright with you?

Well, I’m sure I can find another employee…”

This means that it will be easier to fire an employee without a good reason.

If the employee is an immigrant, they only have three months to find a new job.

If they don’t, their residence permit will expire and they’ll be sent back to their old home country.

Do you think this is right?

Who wants to work in Finland?

Finland’s population is ageing, and we must get more employees.

If the Government Programme is put to practice, why would a foreign employee want to move to Finland?

Why would they study Finnish or Swedish?

Why would they put their children to a Finnish school and build a life here with their family, if everything can be taken away in just three months?

Why would an immigrant be a trade union member and pay the unemployment fund fee if they can’t stay in Finland and get earnings-related unemployment benefit if they end up unemployed?

On top of that, when you think about how the Finnish weather in general is like, are there still people who would want to come work here?

Well, the Government wants to make that very difficult, too.

It’s difficult to get a residence permit for employed person

To get the residence permit for employed person, you usually need an employment contract that’s valid until further notice, i.e. permanent.

Now, the Government wants a new employment contract to be fixed term for up to 12 months – without any valid reason!

When a fixed-term employment contract is not enough to get a residence permit, it will be a bit difficult to come to Finland to work in the future…

JHL wants a fair working life

At Trade Union JHL, we want all the employees of a workplace to have the same rights.

Everyone must also have the right to live in their home country – new or old – in peace: to start a family, build their life and integrate. To live without constant fear and stress.

Each child must get to grow up without discrimination.

Children mustn’t think that their name, home language or skin colour affects what they can hope for their future.

Together we are the trade union

Right now, it’s important to take action together. The new Government must not succeed with its plans.

We want the Finnish working life to be safe and fair for all employees.

We hope that many foreign employees want to move to Finland and stay here.

If you’re not yet a trade union member, join right now!

Also tell your co-workers, neighbours, friends and other acquaintances that everyone needs to get involved.

We can only stop the Government’s bad plans if we all stick together.

Let’s do this now!

“A Day Without a Mexican” is a disaster film.

The message of the film is that we understand something is important only when it’s taken away from us.

Finland without immigrants? – No thanks, Government!