The Rural Workers' Union ( fi, Maaseututyöväen liitto, ML) was 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 (s ...

representing agricultural and forestry workers 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 Bo ...

. The union was founded in 1945 as the Agricultural and Allied Workers' Union, and 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 ...

(SAK). Initially, it mainly represented farm workers, with forestry workers instead joining the Forestry and Lumber Workers' Union (SMUL). In 1949, the SMUL was involved in an unauthorised strike, which led to a riot in Kemi, and was expelled from the SAK, with the ML taking over responsibility for unionising forestry workers. The SMUL finally merged into the ML in 1959, and this greatly strengthened the union's position, with it finally able to negotiate national agreements on pay and working conditions. From 1969, the union was affiliated to the SAK's 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 ...

. In the 1970s, it absorbed the Finnish Forest Workers' Union, and small union founded by the

Finnish Agrarian Party The Finnish Rural Party ( fi, Suomen maaseudun puolue, SMP; sv, Finlands landsbygdsparti, FLP) was an agrarian and populist political party in Finland. Starting as a breakaway faction of the Agrarian League in 1959 as the Small Peasants' Party ...

, and by 1992, it had 19,310 members. The following year, it merged with the Wood Workers' Union, to form the Wood and Allied Workers' Union.{{cite book , last1=Ebbinghaus , first1=Bernhard , last2=Visser , first2=Jelle , title=Trade Unions in Western Europe Since 1945 , date=2000 , publisher=Palgrave Macmillan , location=Basingstoke , isbn=0333771125 , page=217

References

Agriculture and forestry trade unions Trade unions in Finland Trade unions established in 1945 Trade unions disestablished in 1993