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Akava Students, STTK Students and SYL: students must be saved from drowning in debt
Akava Students, STTK Students and the National Union of University Students in Finland are worried about student indebtedness, and demand action to stop it. Since the cuts that were made in student financial aid in 2017, the overall amount of student loan debt has more than doubled, to a whopping EUR 6.2 billion in January 2024. Students are getting deeper and deeper into debt: in 2022, graduates had an average of EUR 22,660 of student loan debt, which is around three times more than a decade ago.
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Akava’s total membership grew in 2023
At the start of 2024, the total number of members of Akava affiliates was 623,299, which signifies an increase of more than 7,000 members in comparison to the previous year. The number of paying members amounted to 437,176. The number of student members was 127,308, which means that Akava affiliates had six thousand more student members at the start of 2024 than they had in 2023.
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Akava: In the labour market conflict, the keys to the solution lie with the Finnish Government
Akava has proposed to the Government an overall review of the working-life reforms, an impact assessment and solutions that would balance the Government Programme’s labour reforms. However, the Government has been reluctant to act on these proposals. Akava would like to emphasise that the Finnish Government holds the keys to solving the labour market crisis. At its meeting on 19 January, Akava’s Board of Directors made a decision on political industrial action, the organisation of which will be coordinated by Akava.
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Reveal Your Skills week October 2 to 8, 2023
The goal of the Reveal Your Skills week is to help people and communities to identify and share their skills, as well as to open the topic up for public discussion. The strength of the Reveal Your Skills campaign is in making it happen together! That’s why we welcome various kinds of communities to act together with us.
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Akava: Labour market crisis must be averted – we propose reconciliation to the Government
Akava views that the Government’s planned working life reforms weaken, in an unprecedented manner, the possibilities of employees to negotiate important working conditions and defend their rights. Akava is critical of and rejects the Government’s working life policies, but proposes reconciliation to avoid a crisis in the labour market. Akava’s Board discussed the situation and defined its stance on the labour legislation proposals in its meeting in Helsinki on 11 September.
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Akava: Non-discriminatory working life calls for concrete legislative actions
Akava considers the Government communication on promoting equality and non-discrimination in Finnish society to be a step in the right direction, but a great deal of further work is necessary. The communication, which the Parliament will discuss on 6 September, lacks concrete legislative amendments and funding decisions.