REVISED PRESS RELEASE: Strike will shut down day care centres in Helsinki Metropolitan Region for two days on 31 January–1 February, no limitations in the strike

REVISION TO THE PRESS RELEASE SENT ON 23 JANUARY 2024 AT 9:13:24: No limitations have been announced for the strike. The earlier press release wrongly stated that those ruled outside the strike are at-home family day care, at-home group family day care, group family day care centres and private family day care.

An extensive political strike will have a significant impact on early childhood education and care in the Helsinki Metropolitan Region on Wednesday 31 January and Thursday 1 February. The Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL is organising a two-day strike in which all early childhood education and care units in Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa will participate. The strike applies to both private and public day care centres.

The strike applies to work shifts that start between 5.59 am on Wednesday 31 January 2024 and 8.59 pm on Thursday 1 February 2024. The strike will last until the end of the ending shift.

The Government’s plan concerning an export-led pay model would in practice mean that salaries within early childhood education and care will also in the future remain low. That will make it even more difficult to find competent employees. The sector is already now suffering from a serious labour shortage, JHL's Interim President Håkan Ekström reminds.

– I understand that the strike puts families with children in a tight spot. I hope that the Government, too, will finally notice that the daily life of Finns becomes impossible without children’s nurses and other early childhood education and care professionals.  The Government is pushing for the kind of a pay model in Finland that would leave day care centre employees in a pay gap. What kinds of problems are we going to be in if competent employees can’t be found within early childhood education and care?

Trade Union JHL has been organising political strikes since autumn 2023, and the strikes have been gradually extended. The trade union is still ready to take further measures if the Government refuses to negotiate about the labour market reforms.

– Our most important duty is to ensure that our members’ terms and conditions of employment and working conditions will continue to remain in order. The Government’s plans are threatening to make a serious mess of the Finnish labour market. As a trade union we must act, and this time that also means heavy strike action, Ekström says.

More information:

Interim President Håkan Ekström 040 828 2865