Paper mill closure major blow to Kuusankoski

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By Leena Härkönen
     
      A day after the paper manufacturer UPM announced its sharp job cutbacks, people in Kuusankoski, one of the areas most severely hit by the news, are wondering what hit them. Smoke is still belching out of the smokestack of the Voikkaa factory, just like before, but people walking in and out of the condemned facility during the shift change are very quiet. Many hold their lunch bags and just walk to their cars with nothing to say.
      Maija Uronen is nevertheless outspoken about her feelings: "I am really pissed off."
      She adds: "It is as if a close friend had died. I can't understand that it is true - perhaps when the gate closes for the last time."
     
Uronen has worked at Voikkaa for 19 years. UPM's announcement that the Voikkaa mill would close next autumn makes her one of the 670 people who are left without work. Adding to the pain of the community is the fact that one paper machine at the Kymi pulp mill will be shut down at the same time.
      Uronen says that feelings among her colleagues go from one extreme to another. "People are all talking about the same thing."
      The grief has begun to morph into dark humour, the details of which Uronen does not want to elaborate on.
      "It's rough", she says. "I have also cried, and perhaps the tears will come again at some point."
      Uronen has already paid off her housing loan, but Risto Saarenpää still owes money on his house. At home he has a wife and four underage children. The factory has provided for them for 20 years, and now he needs to find somewhere else to earn his living.
      Saarenpää is on his way to the evening shift to wash a machine there. His feelings: "No point complaining after taking a dump in your pants. Work has to be completed."
     
Feelings are also running high in the centre of Kuusankoski. A new shopping centre is being built to replace the one that was destroyed by arson. A novelty store advertises the latest joke implements, and the drug store is promoting new facial cremes. At the local café, the afternoon tabloids which are being sold next to the special coffees proclaim the death of the city.
      The prospect of the death of Kuusankoski is also on the mind of Katja Paljakka, who is pushing Eetu, aged 2.5 years, in his pram. Eetu is crying so hard that tears are streaming down his cheeks.
      Paljakka has no friends or relatives working at the factory, but the news nevertheless shocks her.
      "A big and a bad thing. I wonder if the whole town will die now?"
      This thought will be a cause of anguish for a long time at City Hall, which has a coat-of-arms on its wall: on a red field stands a silver fir tree as a symbol of the raw material of the forest industry. Three cones symbolise the three population centres of the city: Kuusankoski, Voikkaa, and the Kymi factory.
      Mayor Reijo Huttunen sits in his office after a meeting, mulling over Kuusankoski's marketing slogan: "Paper City of Finland".
     
Huttunen is wearing a sweat shirt, instead of a suit, because he is actually on his winter holiday. The holiday in nearby Luumäki was interrupted early Wednesday morning by a phone call: a city official told him that UPM would be making an announcement.
      The city leaders have just completed a crisis meeting involving key city officials. Sentiments are downcast and the people were quiet.
      "It was not actually a surprise, but we did not guess that the cutbacks would be so severe. When things go bad in the forest industry, it hits us at the grass-roots level", Huttunen says.
      He says that the city has always had good relations with the factory and its local management. When the factory has wanted a certain zoning plan, or a road somewhere, it has always been accommodated.
      "However, the international management does not make note of an individual industrial community."
     
Kuusankoski once used to be the most prosperous municipality of Kymi Province. However, in recent years, the financial status of the community has followed the result of UPM - in other words, it has deteriorated.
      The blessings brought locally by the industrial installation, the corporate tax revenue, were still EUR 16 million in 2002, but this year the sum is expected to fall by 25 percent.
      Huttunen had previously imagined that he might get the municipal finances to break even by 2008, but it does not look like this will happen.
      "UPM's actions will start to have an impact next year, and in 2009 they will hit with full force."
      Well-paid paper workers have brought tax revenue, which has made it possible to pay for services.
      "How can we maintain services? It will not work with those revenues", Huttunen laments, and runs his fingers through his hair one more time.
      The first priority is to secure services for those most in need: "Health clinics, schools, and day care centres must know how to deal with the pain coming from the homes.
      Later, eyes may turn to neighbouring Kouvola. However, the neighbouring cities have long been at psychological loggerheads: one is a traditionally leftist workers' community, and the other a right-of-centre home of civil servants and tradespeople.
     
Huttunen plans to continue his holiday until Monday, and his telephone beeps with messages of encouragement from colleagues around Finland: "There was a message from Pori saying don't worry, you will rise again."
      The support seems to be just the right thing. An economic slump easily brings a spiritual one with it, but Huttunen declares war against such a thing: "If someone says now that let's cut back on culture and the ski trail networks, or let's not finance concerts any more, he would be wrong! We need an air vent in Kuusankoski to provide mental health for the residents."
      One such vent is the pride of the city - the Kuusankoski Building.
      The cultural institution, which stands on the riverbank, is white and well-lit. The notice board reveals that on March the 17th, singer Jari Sillanpää will be appearing in concert.
      Three artists have set up works in the art exhibition room.
      One of the exhibitions is called Paperikaupunki ("Paper City"). On the wall there is another one, called Rigor mortis, which is accompanied by a poem. "...grief that no one cries, but / everybody's / eyes are red."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 10.3.2006  


Previously in HS International Edition:
  UPM´s Jussi Pesonen´s earnings rose massively last year (14.3.2006)
  State representatives to discuss job cuts with UPM management (10.3.2006)
  Paper manufacturer UPM cutting thousands of jobs in Finland (9.3.2006)

LEENA HÄRKÖNEN / Helsingin Sanomat
leena.harkonen@hs.fi