The General and Speciality Workers' Union ( fi, Yleis- ja erikoisalojen ammattiliitto, YEA) was a

general union A general union is a trade union (called ''labor union'' in American English) which represents workers from all industries and companies, rather than just one organisation or a particular sector, as in a craft union or industrial union. A gene ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. The union was founded in 1960, as a split from the Finnish Food Workers' Union (SEL). At the time, the SEL was led by communists, as was 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), to which it was affiliated. Supporters of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

formed the

Finnish Trade Union Federation Finnish Trade Union Federation ( fi, Suomen Ammattijärjestö, SAJ, sv, Finlands Landsorganisation, FLO) was the first central organisation of trade unions in Finland, established in 1907. It was a part of the Social Democratic Party of Finland ...

(SAJ), and SEL members who wished to affiliate to the SAJ formed the "General and Speciality Workers' Union". As the union's name suggested, it was a

and accepted workers from other industries who were not eligible to join another SAJ-affiliated union, including chemical workers.{{cite journal , title=Proceedings , journal=Proceedings of the 5th World Congress of the International Federation of Petroleum and Chemical Workers , date=1966 , page=112 This enabled it to grow rapidly, and by 1968, the union had 12,000 members. In 1969, the SAJ and the SAK merged, to form the

Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, usually referred to by the acronym SAK ( fi, Suomen Ammattiliittojen Keskusjärjestö; sv, Finlands Fackförbunds Centralorganisation, FFC) is the largest trade union confederation in Finland. Its ...

. The YEA affiliated to the new federation, as did the SEL. In 1970, the union was split up, with the food industry workers rejoining the SEL, while workers in miscellaneous trades mostly joined the new Chemical Workers' Union.

References

General unions Trade unions established in 1960 Trade unions disestablished in 1970 Trade unions in Finland