Stevedores at Finnish harbours have ended their impromptu strike action, and returned to work on Monday.
Workers at a number of Finnish seaports walked off the job last week over allegations that non-union labour had been used to do extra work in face of a ban on overtime imposed by the Finnish Transport Workers’ Union (AKT).
The local strikes stopped Finnish foreign trade almost completely, forcing a number of paper mills to shut down.
Talks aimed at averting an official strike are to continue today, Monday. The discussions, led by National Conciliator Juhani Salonius, were put on hold on Thursday. The talks are to be joined by key figures in the main central labour market organisations: Lauri Ihalainen, head of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), and Seppo Riski, head of labour market affairs at the Confederation of Finnish Industry (EK).
The dispute at hand hinges on union objections to the extensive use of temporary labour in Finnish harbours. A key union demand is to give more of the temporary workers permanent positions. The employers say that they could agree, but want more flexibility in setting working hours.
