29.4.2005 at 16:28
Students and young supporters of the Green League announced Friday a strike on having children, to begin Saturday. The strikers demand for the costs of parenthood to be split evenly between all employers instead of weighing heavily on the employers of child-bearing women alone. Also on the agenda is doing away with the endless chain of fixed-term employment, mostly the destiny of young women.
The Green youths wish to engage also the youth organisations of other political parties and everybody sympathetic with the cause, regardless of political affiliation or sex.
"People dare not have children at all, because they don't have a steady job and their general situation is insecure," said Eekku Aromaa, member of the strike committee.
According to Mr Aromaa, people have on average one child less than they would want to have.
"Maybe employers could have a fund where social security payments would be collected. Employers could be compensated at the point when an employee of theirs went on maternity leave," he told the Finnish News Agency (STT).
The strike is especially aimed against government and employers of male-dominated industries.
The strike is to begin on Saturday at 1 PM in front of Kiasma, the museum of contemporary art in Helsinki. Pep talk and distribution of prophylactics is in the programme.
The strike is to spread also into the towns of Oulu, Rovaniemi, Kouvola, Tampere, Turku, Jyväskylä and Kuopio.
The aim is to distribute condoms in as many towns as possible already in the course of Saturday.
STT
Rinceybabes 
