The Betrothal of January (, ) was a declaration given by the that recognized the

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

s and their central organization the

Finnish Federation of Trade Unions The Finnish Federation of Trade Unions ( fi, Suomen Ammattiyhdistysten Keskusliitto, SAK) was a national trade union centre in Finland. The federation was established in 1930, after the Finnish Trade Union Federation (SAJ) was banned. Its initial ...

(SAK) as parties in

collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The ...

on questions of

industrial relations Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor/trade unions, employer organizations, ...

. The two sides agreed that they would start trying to reach a common understanding for further negotiation. The declaration was read on the evening news bulletin of the public service radio

Yle Yleisradio Oy ( Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, found ...

on 23 January 1940 and published in

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

s the following day. Until then, only printers had

collective agreement A collective agreement, collective labour agreement (CLA) or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written contract negotiated through collective bargaining for employees by one or more trade unions with the management of a company (or with an ...

s on their working conditions. The Betrothal agreement was part of the so-called Spirit of the Winter War and eventually the

national income policy agreement Finnish national income policy agreements or comprehensive income policy agreements (, often called ''tupo''; ) are tripartite agreements between Finnish trade unions, employers' organizations, and the Finnish government. They are policy document ...

. In February 2017, the

Confederation of Finnish Industries The Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK, fi, Elinkeinoelämän Keskusliitto, sv, Finlands Näringsliv) is the largest employers' association in Finland. It was formed at the beginning of 2005 when the two employers' associations ''Palvelutyö ...

(the successor of the Association of Finnish Industries) announced that it would withdraw from the 22 existing agreements and no longer participate in any negotiations for

tripartite Tripartite means composed of or split into three parts, or refers to three parties. Specifically, it may also refer to any of the following: * 3 (number) * Tripartite language * Tripartite motto * Tripartite System in British education * Triparti ...

agreements.

References

1940 documents Political history of Finland Trade unions in Finland {{Finland-stub