By mid April, the strike movement had been effectively dissipated, with workers winning only the most minimal pay increases that barely kept pace with inflation. The trade unions in Finland play the key role in preserving the interests of big business against those of their members. The SAK, the largest trade union federation, which mainly organises manual workers, has 1.1 million members out of a total workforce of around 2.4 million people. The STTK white-collar union federation has 655,000 members, and the federation of academic professionals' unions has 375,000 members. Taken together this gives a figure for union membership of around 80 percent, similar to the rest of Scandinavia, and far in advance of most other countries in the world.
Many unions also have significant student, unemployed and retired memberships.
The recent strikes came after attempts failed between the employers, government and the trade unions to agree a third two-year wages policy across all sectors of the workforce. For many years wages in any particular industry have been set nationally through bargaining between the trade unions and employers. The wage rates agreed covered all workers in that industry, regardless of whether they were union members or not. However, since 1995 agreements have been reached that restricted all wage increases to around the rate of price inflation. In 1995 and 1997, agreements were negotiated that were crucial in allowing the Finnish economy to recover from the devastating impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.