Finnish Trade Union Federation (, SAJ; , FLO) was the first central organisation of

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, established in 1907. It was a part of the

Social Democratic Party of Finland The Social Democratic Party of Finland ( , SDP, nicknamed: ''demarit'' in Finnish; , SD) is a social democratic political party in Finland. It is the third-largest party in the Parliament of Finland with a total of 43 seats. Founded in 1899 as ...

(SDP), all union members were also party members. SAJ's membership peaked at 110,000 in 1917.Tepora, Tuomas & Roselius, Aapo: ''The Finnish Civil War 1918: History, Memory, Legacy'', p. 32. Brill Academic Publishers, 2014. . Finnish Trade Union Federation was a member of the

International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres The International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres (ISNTUC), often simply referred to as the International Secretariat and later renamed the International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), was an international consultative body of trade ...

since 1909.

History

In the 1918

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between Whites (Finland), White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition fr ...

the

Red Guards The Red Guards () were a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 until their abolition in 1968, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a ...

were mostly composed of SAJ members. It was also one of the organizations forming the Supreme Workers' Council which was the parliament of

Red Finland The Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (FSWR), more commonly referred to as Red Finland, was a self-proclaimed socialist state in Finland during the Finnish Civil War from January to May 1918. The FSWR was established by the Finnish People's D ...

.Punaisen Suomen valtiomuoto
(in Finnish). University of Tampere. Retrieved 28 June 2015. After the Civil War, the radical SAJ members established the

Socialist Workers' Party of Finland Socialist Workers' Party of Finland () was a Finnish political party in the early 1920s. The SSTP consisted of radical leftists who split from the Social Democratic Party of Finland after the Finnish Civil War of 1918. The banned Communist Party ...

(SSTP) in May 1920. The main force behind SSTP was the illegal Communist Party, and a year later the Communists gained a majority in SAJ.Campbell, Joan: ''European Labor Unions'', p. 555–556. Greenwood Press, 1992.
Google Books
/ref> After the rise of the extremist right-wing

Lapua Movement The Lapua Movement (, ) was a radical Finnish nationalist, fascist, pro- German and anti-communist political movement founded in and named after the town of Lapua. Led by Vihtori Kosola, it turned towards far-right politics after its founding ...

, the SAJ was banned in 1930 due to the newly passed

Communist Law The Communist Law or The Law on Prohibition Against Communist Associations and Communist Activities was an unconstitutional piece of Danish legislation passed under Nazi occupation on 22 August 1941 which banned the Communist Party of Denmark and ...

. The Communists then founded the shortly-lived Red Trade Union and the Social Democrats the

Finnish Federation of Trade Unions The Finnish Federation of Trade Unions (, 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 affiliates were unions which supported the ...

(SAK). In 1960, the dissident SAK members formed another central organization which was also called SAJ. The new organization and SAK merged in 1969, forming the present-day

Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, usually referred to by the acronym SAK (; ) is the largest trade union confederation in Finland. Its member organisations have a total of more than one million members, which makes up about one fif ...

List of chairmen

Eero Haapalainen Eero Haapalainen ( Russian Эро Эрович Хаапалайнен, ''Ero Erovich Khaapalaynen''; 27 October 1880 – 27 November 1937) was a Finnish politician, trade unionist and journalist, who served as the commander-in-chief of the Red ...

1907–1911 * Matti Paasivuori 1911–1912, 1918–1920, 1926–1929 *

Oskari Tokoi Antti Oskari Tokoi (15 April 1873 – 4 April 1963) was a Finnish socialist politician who served as a leader of the Social Democratic Party of Finland. Tokoi became Chairman of the Senate of Finland in 1917, and thus, he was the world's first so ...

1912–1917 * Johan Lumivuokko 1917–1918 * Matti Väisänen 1920–1923 * Edvard Huttunen 1923–1925 * Erkki Härmä 1926 * Iisakki Heikka 1929–1930 * Yrjö Murto 1930

References

{{Authority control Defunct trade unions of Europe National trade union centers of Finland 1907 establishments in Finland 1930 disestablishments in Finland Trade unions established in 1907 Finnish Civil War Defunct organisations based in Finland Social Democratic Party of Finland