Workers with no work and no pay represent a challenge to the welfare society

The Tolkise sawmill in Finland fell silent in December 2008 when operator Stora Enso reacted to the financial crisis and decided to suspend production for one year. 50 of the mill’s 70 workers were laid off; four were retained to look after the machinery and buildings; and the remaining workers decided to retire.

Hopes that the sounds of sawing will fill Tolkise again within a few months are slim. “We’ll see what spring brings,” says Raimo Nenonen, who has worked at the mill since 1978, in an interview with the new online magazine Arbeidsliv i Norden (Working Life in the Nordic Countries). 59-year-old Nenonen spends most of his days at home with his cat Murre. The majority of the household income is now being earned by his partner; the timber worker himself receives unemployment benefits.

Working and work conditions are as much of an issue in the Nordic countries during the economic and financial crisis as they are in Estonia. Unemployment has risen everywhere, people are much more worried about their jobs now than they were a year ago, and the amount they are getting paid for difficult work is not always enough to keep the coffers brimming over.
Unemployment has taken on a new meaning, and employers are forcing tough working conditions on their staff – these are just some of the topics covered in the first issue of Arbeidsliv i Norden. Some people earn big salaries and don’t have to lift a finger to do so, while others are unofficially unemployed and doing endless hours of social work in order to qualify for their unemployment benefit. Up to now, Arbeidsliv i Norden has been published on paper four times per year. Now readers can keep themselves up to date with work opportunities, occupational health issues, work rights, news, debates and comments online, with the magazine being updated at least ten times a year instead of just four, as per the paper version.
Published on the initiative of the Nordic Council of Ministers, Arbeidsliv i Norden is currently available in three languages: Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. A Finnish version of the magazine and its newsletter will be produced in autumn. An English magazine and the newsletter Nordic Labour Journal will also be published four times a year.