declined. The depression resulted in wide-spread unemployment and tensions in
the workplace grew. Right-wing radicalism reached its peak in 1930 and the Lapua
movement, a Finnish nationalist and anti-communist radical movement, grew in
popularity. It staged violent kidnappings of left-wing councillors and pressured them
to resign from the local councils in 70 municipalities, including the City Council of
Turku.^638 In the late 1920s, the degree of organisation among construction workers
had been high. In the 1930s, trade union activists and active members of the Finnish
Communist Party, which operated underground, were under surveillance by employer
organisations, employers and the Finnish Secret Police. The Finnish Trade Union
Federation, which represented workers in the collective bargaining agreements for
the construction industry in the 1920s, was discontinued owing to the national-level
disputes between left-wing parties.^639
Public emergency employment programmes became a central method of creating
jobs for the unemployed during the depression. Rising unemployment created a poverty
problem, which fell on the local authorities to resolve. The Poor Relief Act obliged local
authorities to ensure the livelihood of its residents. In cities, emergency employment
was indeed organised by the local authorities. Rural municipalities, however, did not
have the necessary resources to organise emergency employment, which subsequently
fell on the State to arrange.^640 The pit of the depression was reached in 1932, when
the unemployment rate was at its highest.^641 The Finnish State ordered contingency
work to be carried out in winter 1931–1932 to combat unemployment in state-run
hospitals and sanatoria run by municipal federations.^642 The Paimio site employed no
contingency workers, and all employees were on a normal contract. However, the State
ordered emergency work on several hospital building sites. The Ministry of Transport
and Public Works had requested the State Medical Board to propose sites where con-
tingency work could be organised to alleviate unemployment. The State Medical Board
made a proposal in 1931 on a number of hospital building sites for contingency work^643
638 Peltola 2008a, p. 121.
639 Peltola 2008a, p. 316.
640 Hannikainen 2009, pp. 16–17.
641 Peltola 2008a, p. 317.
642 The Ministry of Transport and Public Works obliged the State Medical Board to organise contingency work for
the winter and autumn seasons 1931–1933. Record No. 1596 3462 III. State Medical Board 1931 Da:13. NA;
Record No. 201744 5411 III. State Medical Board 1932 Da:19. NA; Record No. 2793 7110 III. State Medical Board
1933 Da: 25. NA.
643 Sites included in the 1931 proposal by the State Medical Board were the excavation and foundation work for the
Gynaecological and Obstetrics Department for Helsinki General Hospital, Kajaani General Hospital and Sortavala
General Hospital. Record No. 1596 3462 III. State Medical Board 1931 Da:13. NA.