The day before the May Day was the day when the result of the vote on the new wage agreement for public sector workers was announced. There had been negotiations for a long time, but the result of the negotiations was very bad, so the leaders of the unions feared that the members would vote No and in this way start a strike. The top leaders had presented the result as the best possible one, and they said that it was impossible to get a better one through strikes. But the dissatisfaction with the result was very big, and in some unions the leaders were forced by the members to recommend a No vote. The result included a 5.55% pay rise over three years, but then there is inflation, and most economists reckon that there will be no real pay rise at all or maybe even a fall. There were a few good things in the result, like two extra days off every year, and very small improvements in pensions. For some groups of workers the result included a direct worsening of the rules for when and how long they can work. The biggest issue in the negotiations was the further spreading of the so-called New Wage system which is a system of individually negotiated wages that workers can get by doing "something special" at the workplace. This is a very bad system which can split the workers; it will widen the difference in wages and it threatens the right to negotiate collectively. So all in all the result of the negotiations was very bad.