The merger of six Finnish unions is down to five, and the effective date has been delayed one year – to 1 January 2011 – in order to make the merged union structure, to be called TEAM, fully operational.

A joint project management committee of the unions made that announcement on 5 May, stating the extra time is needed because of the deep economic recession and the demands caused by it on staff. Among those demands is administration of unemployment funds.

Meanwhile, an ICEM affiliate, the Electrical Workers’ Union, has withdrawn from the planned merger. On 6 May, a majority representation group from the union decided to withdraw. As it now stands, merger partners include: Kemianliitto, the ICEM-affiliated Chemical Workers Union; Metalli, the Finnish Metalworkers’ Union; the Wood and Allied Workers’ Union; the Finnish Media Union; and the Finnish Railwaymen’s Union.

The Railwaymen’s Union is currently conducting a referendum on the new merger, which will be completed on 20 May, while the Media Union has already adopted the name TEAM as its new moniker. In February 2008, Kemianliitto members passed a binding vote in favour of the merger, while Metalli also saw members give approve to the merger in a consultative vote that same month.

The merged Finnish industrial union would comprise 330,000 members, and would be governed by a Congress occurring five years, with delegates to that Congress electing both a General Council and an Executive Committee.