Leaf factory announcement of 50% wage cut prompts walkout before decision reversed

Reduced productivity reported after announcement of impending closure

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Employees of the Leaf sweets factory in Turku walked off their jobs again on Thursday afternoon, after the factory's management announced that wages would be cut in half in response to a sharp drop in productivity.
      According to head shop steward Raimo Häikiö, the management said that the move came because output at the plant had sharply declined since last week's announcement that the factory would be shut down by the end of next year. That announcement prompted a previous walkout on Wednesday.
      "I just wonder how people would be capable of producing the same amount of goods as before after all of this. The people are so broken that it is not possible to expect the same from them as before. Management seems to be playing hardball to the very end", said Häikiö.
     
The walkout began at 2:00 PM, the time that the factory's management said that the wage cut would take effect.
      "We will wait until Monday to see if any decisions are made on the wage issue. When the shifts begin on Monday we will come and see if the wages have been restored to what they were before", said Häikiö on Thursday evening.
     
The factory's CEO David Nuutinen returned a call at 5:30 PM to say that the decision to halve the factory workers' wages had been cancelled.
      However, he also said that the labour contract states that wages are paid according to the amount of work that is done, and that has declined.
      Nuutinen says that a notice was put on the wall of the Turku factory, concerning a possible cut in wage levels to correspond to the amount of work that is done. The notice also contained a theoretical calculation.
      "It is most unfortunate that the employees felt that their only way to react was to walk off their jobs."
      He also said that he and the factory's head of production, Sakari Taskinen, had decided that when the employees come back to work, the measures indicated in the notice would not be implemented.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Ministry predicts Finland will lose 100,000 industrial jobs in ten years (2.6.2005)
  Sweets manufacturer Leaf shuts down its plant in Turku (25.5.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat