The autumn meeting of the Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff YTN has elected Teemu Hankamäki, Labour Market Director at Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland, as the Chairperson of the negotiation organisation for the two-year term 2026-2027. The current Chairperson of YTN, Samu Salo, will step down from his position at the end of this year.
Hankamäki has previously served as Chairperson of YTN from 2018-2023 and Secretary General from 2014-2017.
“As a result of the difficult round of negotiations that took place last spring, collective agreements were, as a rule, concluded for a period of three years. Now is a good time to focus on trimming our operations to respond to changes in the labour market and contract operations as part of the strategy revision work during next spring,” Hankamäki says.
“The key parties to the collective agreement should also consider how to streamline the negotiations that will begin in autumn 2027 at the latest. Unfortunately, we have completely dismantled structures in which a relatively large group would seek a common understanding of what kind of cost level of agreements would develop the purchasing power of employees, take into account the situation of companies and be optimal for the positive development of the Finnish economy as a whole,” he continues.
Kati Hallikainen, Leading Legal Counsel at the Union of Professional Engineers, Labour Market Director Riku Salokannel from Suomen Ekonomit and Ville-Veikko Rantamaula, Director, Collective Bargaining & Representation of Interesta at Professionals of Business and Technology, were elected as Vice Chairpersons of the negotiation organisation.
In addition, Hannele Aikio (TEK), Kimmo Koskinen (TEK), Jyrki Kopperi (IL), Lasse Laurikainen (IL), Kosti Hyyppä (Ekonomit), Olli Kaure (Akava Special Branches), Sirpa Leppäluoto (ASIA), Mikko Salo (Vakava) and Nuutti Pursiainen (YKA) were elected as ordinary members of the Board.
“YTN’s basic task will not change with the new strategy. We will continue to negotiate and enter into national and company-specific collective agreements for the benefit of our members, which means annual salary increases and basic terms of employment as well as having competent shop stewards at the workplaces.”
“We will start working on the basic task immediately after the turn of the year, as, unlike the rest of the agreement field, the validity of the collective agreement for universities of applied sciences will end on 31 March 2026. Negotiations on the renewal of the agreement will begin with the Finnish Education Employers in January,” Hankamäki says.
More information:
Teemu Hankamäki
Chairperson
tel. +358 40 709 6681
Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff (YTN) is a private sector negotiation organisation and we are responsible for the collective agreement activities of senior salaried employees in the manufacturing industry, service industries, organisations and universities of applied sciences. YTN has 19 member unions with more than 180,000 members in the private sector. In companies and workplaces, they are represented by approximately 1,700 YTN shop stewards.