Half of Estonian companies under embargo by Finland’s construction union owned by Finns

About half of the 21 Estonian companies under an embargo imposed by Finland’s Construction Trade Union are owned by Finns.This year a total of 175 new companies have been registered in Estonia that are either partially or completely owned by Finns, and whose line of business is either construction or renting out labour. Before the beginning of this year there were a total of 373 such companies. The Construction Trade Union says that a number of other companies, which are nominally owned and operated by Estonians, have Finns making the decisions, and reaping the economic benefits. The union imposed the embargo on the 21 construction companies which had not provided what the union considered satisfactory information on the pay and working conditions of their workers. The embargo means that members of the Construction Trade Union are forbidden to work in cooperation with the company in question. Esko Auvinen and Markus Ainasoja of the Construction Trade Union say that the Finns who run companies which are nominally owned by Estonians usually have such a shady past that they are unable to operate openly under their own names. "It is wrong to accuse Estonians or Russians of violating the conditions of work. The ones who actually engage in dishonest practices are usually Finns.", says Auvinen.