The Paperworkers' Union ( fi, Paperiliitto) is a

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 ( ...

representing workers in the paper industry, in

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 ...

History

The union was established in 1906, on the initiative of the

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

Paper Industry Workers' Union. Initially a successful organisation, it split in 1930 between 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 Fo ...

(SDP) and a communist-led group. The communist group was soon banned, so the SDP's Finnish Paper Industry Workers' Union viewed itself as the successor of the earlier union. The union affiliated to 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 ...

, and then from 1969, to its successor, 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 ...

. By 1998, it had 49,618 members, but by 2019, this had fallen to 34,021, of whom only 14,000 were actively employed in the industry. Despite its decline in membership, the union decided against joining the

Industrial Union TEAM The Industrial Union TEAM ( fi, Teollisuusalojen ammattiliitto, TEAM) was a trade union representing manufacturing and print workers in Finland. The Chemical Union had been keen to unite the various industrial union in Finland for several years, ...

, founded in 2010, or its successor, the

Industrial Union Industrial unionism is a trade union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of skill or trade, thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in ...

Presidents

:1906: Aksel Pynnönen :1907: Ville Salonen :1908: Kalle Salminen :1910: K. A. Koskinen :1917: Eino Rissanen :1919: Kalle Koivunen :1922: Aleksi Ulanen :1929: Santtu Vuorio :1935: Hjalmar Lappalainen :1946: Pentti Lundström :1949: Vihtori Rantanen :1955: Veikko Ahtola :1978: Antero Mäki :1993: Jarmo Lähteenmäki :2003: Jouko Ahonen :2011: Petri Vanhala

References

External links

*{{official website, https://www.paperiliitto.fi/ Paper industry trade unions Trade unions in Finland Trade unions established in 1906 1906 establishments in Finland