Majority of PAM Congress decision-makers are new
373 representatives were elected to Service Union United PAM’s Congress to be held in Helsinki in June. The majority of the persons elected – 57 per cent – will be participating in the Congress for the first time.
“The number of new Congress representatives is in line with the situation in service sectors, where people change jobs more frequently than in other sectors. For the Congress this time round young people especially voted more actively than before and also got more votes as candidates, which also affects the turnover among the representatives”, as PAM President Ann Selin comments the election result.
The Congress result reflects the structure of the union’s membership fairly well. The occupational breakdown among service sectors also reflects the membership structure better than before, with the election resulting in fewer representatives from the retail sector and a larger share from other sectors.
“It will be a more balanced group of representatives from different sectors taking decisions on union matters at the Congress. This is sure to strengthen the lobbying we do in service sectors”, Selin says.
53 per cent of representatives elected are employed in the retail sector, which remains the largest group at the Congress. 25 per cent of representatives come from the hospitality sector and 13 per cent from the facility services sector.
The largest numbers of votes in the elections went to Piia Kyrö from Kouvola, Sini Heikkinen from Helsinki, Kimmo Alatalo from Oulu, Marjo Korhonen from Kajaani and Heikki Laakkonen from Espoo.
65.15 per cent of the representatives elected to the Congress are women. The youngest representative elected is 21 and the oldest 64. The average age of Congress participants is 44, which is a good reflection of the union’s average membership structure. Around 12.1 per cent of members exercised their right to vote in the elections. Voting was most active in the Kainuu electoral district.
Details of all the persons elected and much more information on the elections can be found on PAM’s website at www.pam.fi/liittokokous