New mediation proposal in paper industry dispute - response expected Thursday

SAK’s Ihalainen recommends acceptance

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The strikes and lockout which have kept machinery at Finland’s paper factories shut down for more than five weeks could be over on Thursday if the Paperworkers’ Union and the Finnish Forest Industries Federation give their approval to a mediation proposal put forward on Tuesday evening by National Conciliator Juhani Salonius.
      The union and the management side are to give their answers by 3:00 PM on Thursday.
      Salonius said that his latest mediation proposal contains slight changes of emphasis in pay structure, and on the questions of holiday shutdowns and subcontracting.
      The paper industry has been calling for the scrapping of the current Christmas and Midsummer production shutdowns, and wants to use subcontractors for certain jobs at paper factories, such as cleaning and maintenance.
      Salonius addresses both issues in his proposal. He says that the subcontracting issue was "extremely difficult", but he thinks that he has found a solution.
     
Neither Salonius nor the two sides wanted to give out details. Arto Tähtinen, head of labour market affairs at the Forest Industries Federation said that the paper was "very detailed".
      The proposal would appear to follow the basic guidelines of Salonius’ previous proposal. The contract would be three years in duration, and would involve pay hikes that would raise employer payroll costs by six percent.
      Paperworkers’ Union President Jouko Ahonen would not anticipate how the union’s decision-making bodies would react. However, he insisted that the union is taking the proposal seriously.
      Ahonen also predicted that any decision in the union’s administrative bodies would be unanimous. However, he also said that there were still certain "points of pain", and predicted that completing the process would not be easy.
     
Coming out in favour of Salonius’ proposal was Lauri Ihalainen, President of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK). He urged both sides to accept the proposed settlement.
      Ihalainen said that drawing out the process would bring neither side any significant advantages, and would lead to growing economic problems in other fields as well.
      Also expressing hope for a settlement was Seppo Riski, head of labour market affairs at the Confederation of Finnish Industry (EK).
      Both Ihalainen and Riski spent Tuesday at the paper industry negotiations. Ihalainen was reportedly very keen to persuade the Paperworkers’ Union to settle the dispute.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Paper dispute mediation fails again - lockout and strike action to go on (15.6.2005)
  Individual unions decide on support measures for paper workers (7.6.2005)
  Paper industry labour contract dispute to be determined on Sunday (2.6.2002)
  Finnish Forest Industries Federation set to continue lockout (1.6.2005)

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