Three-day strike looming over retail sector at end of April

Stockmann to defy Friday 24-hour stoppage

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The Service Union United (PAM) has issued a strike warning that would close all large department stores and supermarkets just before May 1st.
     
The threatened industrial action would begin on Wednesday April 28th at 6:00 a.m. and end at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of May 1st.
      The strike will take place if all arbitration talks fail to produce a solution before then.
     
The one-day strike announced earlier by PAM for next Friday is set to last from 6:00 am on Friday until 6:00 am on Saturday. The strike action will affect both the commercial sector and the security sector.
      However, in the security sector mediation talks are to resume on Thursday April 15th. If the talks fail, security personnel in the stores and central warehouses will also be included in the strike on Friday.
     
However, Stockmann has announced that it will keep its department stores open on Friday, as the Stockmann spring sales, also known as Hullut päivät (”Crazy Days”), which are to begin today, will continue for five days through until Sunday.
      ”I regret that Stockmann has chosen this course of action. They have recruited non-professional temporary personnel for just one day”, says PAM’s president Ann Selin.
      On Monday, the Union Board of PAM rejected a mediation proposal, which had been put forward by National Conciliator Esa Lonka, by a vote of 10-9. Selin and the two vice presidents would have accepted the proposal.
     
The Union Board of PAM criticised particularly the proposed reform of pay structure that has been offered for the autumn.
      The change would give no pay increase to some 10 per cent of those who are covered by the collective agreement.
      The proposed 0.6 per cent general pay rise in the spring would have been easier to accept.
      Furthermore, PAM said that Lonka’s settlement proposal did not take into consideration the trade union’s demand to restrict the use of staffing services during dismissal situations.
     
If the strike that has been planned to begin prior to May 1st goes ahead, it will affect all Stockmann, Euromarket , Prisma, and Citymarket stores as well as the large central warehouses.
      The Union Board of PAM has also decided that the security staff at the Helsinki Airport employed by the SOL service corporation will go on a sympathy strike on April 16th.
     
Moreover, a warning of a one-day strike in the real estate sector has been issued for May 3rd.
     
On Friday April 16th, the threatened strike in the retail trade sector is expected to affect mostly large stores, while many small shops will remain open with the help of entrepreneurs and their families.
      Major retail chains will be providing details of possible closures on their websites.
      The strike will also not affect the opening of the Alko liquor stores.


Links:
  Service Union United (PAM)

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