Major strike in Finland against government labour market reforms
A widespread strike in protest at labour market reforms planned by the conservative government paralysed large parts of public life in Finland on Thursday.
Some 300,000 workers planned to participate in the strike, which is set to continue into Friday, national public broadcaster Yle reported.
The strike hit daycare centres in the Helsinki region, and air traffic was severely impacted. Ahead of the strike, Finnair warned that it expected to cut 550 flights on Thursday and Friday.
Postal services and a number of industrial concerns were also affected.
Around 13,000 people joined a demonstration on Senate Square in central Helsinki, according to police estimates.
Speaking at the event, Antti Lindtman, the head of the opposition Social Democrats, accused the government of refusing to listen to the demands of the demonstrators, which he described as reasonable.
He said the reform programme of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's government, which draws in Orpo's conservative National Coalition Party along with the right-wing populists of the Finns Party and two other parties, would weaken workers' rights and undermine social security.
