Press releases

Minister of Employment Tuula Haatainen postponed the first wave of strikes in trade logistics at the proposal of the National Conciliator Anu Sajavaara. The warehouse strikes announced for 6–9 February will be postponed by two weeks. The reason for the postponement of strikes is to secure the security of supply and the food supply of the most vulnerable citizens.

The Finnish Commerce Federation reacts to Service Union United PAM's excessive and extreme industrial action and initiates countermeasures. The Federation decided, as a very exceptional measure, to end the withholding and crediting of trade union membership fees as of 15 February.

The collective agreement and salary negotiations launched in January by the Finnish Commerce Federation and Service Union United PAM took a surprising turn on Sunday 22 January 2023 when PAM announced industrial action for the second week of February. According to PAM, the announcement applies to more than 185 sites with about 20,000 employees. The strikes would start in warehouses on Monday, 6 February 2023 and continue in other commerce sector locations on 9 February 2023. The Finnish Commerce Federation considers PAM's activities irresponsible and feels that PAM has not been genuinely involved in the negotiations and developing the collective agreement.  

The debate on the position of primary food producers and the distribution of profits and increased costs in the food supply chain has accelerated and intensified over the past year. As the year is coming to a close, commerce has prepared the Kaupan näkökulmia ruokakeskusteluun (‘Commerce’s view of the food debate’) material package to declare its stance, to open up the situation in the market and to provide facts for the, occasionally, biased discussion.

Since last year, customer satisfaction has increased in all the speciality and household goods trade sectors studied. In particular, domestic chains have improved their position in customer satisfaction, service experience and customer loyalty. Although customer satisfaction in the grocery trade did not increase, the average is still clearly higher than in other sectors.