Finnish paper workers issue strike warning - support promised from abroad

Several plants remain closed today

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The Finnish Paperworkers' Union has threatened a national strike lasting about two days next month. The union's labour market committee announced on Thursday that a stoppage would begin late on Sunday, May 15th, and conclude on Wednesday the 18th, if no labour contract is reached before that. The union would then consider further measures.
      Meanwhile, employees at paper factories owned by Stora Enso in other parts of Europe threatened to support their Finnish colleagues with industrial action of their own.
      A stoppage in the forest industry, which was implemented earlier this week, was supposed to have ended this morning. However, many Finnish pulp and paper mills remained shut down on Friday.
      A strike warning for the paper and pulp industry was also issued on Thursday by the union representing electrical workers, and a committee representing members of the Union of Salaried Employees (TU) working in the paper industry will meet on Tuesday next week to consider possible action.
      In what is seen as a very difficult dispute, national conciliator Juhani Salonius has invited the two sides to his offices on Tuesday to look for a settlement.
     
Arto Tähtinen, labour market leader of the Finnish Forest Industries' Federation, welcomed the prospect of talks with the assistance of Salonius. "Now the factories are on strike illegally. At least this way there would be a return to legality on the 15th", was Tähtinen's terse comment on Thursday.
      Union locals stopped all of Finland's pulp and paper mills on Wednesday to protest a decision by the Stora Enso paper factory in Anjalankoski to keep the factory shut down.
      Paperworkers' Union chairman Jouko Ahonen said that the two sides had never been as badly split as they are now.
      The Forest Industries' Federation opted out of the autumn's incomes agreement, demanding, among other things, that the regular shutdowns during the Christmas and Midsummer holidays be cancelled, and that the first two days of sick leave should be unpaid.
     
The Paperworkers' Union got international support on Thursday. The European Works Council (EWC) of Stora Enso announced that it would support Finnish paper workers and office workers in the field.
      Representatives of paper company employees from 12 countries declared in Helsinki that they are willing to take action at Stora Enso plants in the various countries within the bounds of national legislation.
      Lars-Göran Johansson, a Swedish member of the EWC executive committee, said that he was concerned that demands for worsening the terms of employment at Finnish paper plants could spread to other countries.
     
Fuel was added to the flames when Stora Enso said that it would not restart some of its factories on Friday when the stoppage was to have ended. The employer wants guarantees that the union's ban on overtime would not lead to more interruptions of production.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Industrial action stops all paper and pulp mills until Friday morning (28.4.2005)
  UPM considers lockout at Finnish paper mills (27.4.2005)

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