Marginal Labour Power and the Finnish Trade Union Movement

Abstract

Rapid structural change, relative technological backwardness, and a position between East and West are the key factors that explain why Finland, unlike most West European economies, has managed to sustain continued economic growth in the 1980s However, a sharp increase in unemployment rates after the mid-1970s revealed a process of marginalization within the Finnish labour force This article examines the labour movement's attitudes towards marginal labour power The mechanisms behind labour movement policies are described m logic of action terms. The conclusion is that the logics of action tend to remove the trade union movement further from the interests of marginal labour power, although there are some opposite tendencies too.