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Finnish government top officials congratulate each other for the beginning of the neoliberal nightma
Finnish government top officials congratulate each other for the beginning of the neoliberal nightmare!If one fist bump could endanger Finland's increasingly stressed tradition of consensus politics, then Prime Minister Juha Sipila and a cabinet colleague may just have achieved this dubious distinction.
In a nod to popular culture, a smiling Sipila and his finance minister Alexander Stubb punched each other's fist to celebrate a breakthrough in negotiating one of Finland's toughest austerity deals in decades with trade unions.
The unions, whose members face de facto wage cuts in the name of reviving economic growth, were deeply unimpressed by the public show of exuberance earlier this month. “Members were very upset. They thought that they were mocking workers, saying something like: 'now we can drive them into the ground',” said PAM union leader Ann Selin, who represents 232,000 workers.
...
Relying on traditional consensus politics, Sipila wants to persuade the unions to cut labor costs by 5 percent. It is part of his push to raise the competitiveness of the Finnish economy after three years of recession with some of the deepest austerity and welfare since World War Two.
http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2016/04/finnish-government-top-officials.html
