Jaana Ylitalo elected to chair the UNI Europa Property Services

The first vice-chairperson of the Service Union United PAM Jaana Ylitalo was elected to chair the UNI Europa Property Services at its conference in Liverpool. It represents European workers who clean and maintain buildings and provide private security services.

"The number of employees in Europe is growing in these sectors", Ylitalo says. "For this reason we must work especially hard for both terms of work and legislation in these sectors."

It is particularly important to guarantee a living wage and focus on occupational health and working place security, Ylitalo says.

Influencing European Union legislation is an important part of UNI Europa work. Jaana Ylitalo stresses the importance of the European cooperation to advance workers' rights.

"We can get things done with European cooperation, it is not only an expense for the unions. The maintenance and security sectors workers’ rights and income level must be taken into consideration at EU level. The public procurement directive for example has a major impact on the whole private sector", Ylitalo says.

Organising workers was one of the main themes of the conference. Also the recent European Parliament elections raised lively debate.

The term for chairperson is four years. The previous chairperson was chairperson of the Swedish Building Maintenance Workers' Union Hans Öhlund. He chaired UNI Europa Property Services for 11 years.

Service Union United PAM organise people working in the private services sector. With over 220 000 members, PAM is one of the largest trade unions in Finland.

Heikki Jokinen