Strike may close food processing plants again

Strikes and lockout used as weapons in foodstuffs industry negotiations

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A three-day strike that is scheduled to last from Wednesday morning until Friday evening is threatening the foodstuffs industry.
      If no agreement is reached during the course of Tuesday, the strike involving around 9,300 food industry workers will commence in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
      The strike would be significantly larger than the one carried out a couple of weeks ago, which already affected the availability of fresh bread and meat in the country’s grocery stores.
     
The companies that would be affected by the strike would include, among others, the Fazer and Vaasan leipomo bakeries across the country, the Valio food processing plants, Altia - a state-owned producer and importer of alcoholic drinks, the Fazer and Panda sweets factories, Paulig, Hartwall, Meira, Ruoka-Saarioinen, Sinebrychoff, Atria, HK Ruokatalo, Arla Ingman, and Nestlé Finland.
     
The stakes are high in the foodstuffs field, for the employers' side represented by the Finnish Food and Drinks Industries Federation (ETL) has already announced as a countermeasure a three-day lockout starting next Monday.
      The lockout would apply to 235 companies and it would effectively mean putting a stop to production and to the payment of wages to around 18,000 workers belonging to the Finnish Food Workers’ Union (SEL).
     
The Finnish Bakery Association has recommended its members to join in a rare sympathy lockout.
      The food industry collective labour agreement disagreement has to do with salaries and the organising of working hours.
      The employers' side would like to add more flexibility to the working hours for example because of the liberation of shop opening-hours.
     
The Finnish Food Workers’ Union has interpreted that according to the model proposed by ETL, the length of a working day could be ten hours while a working week could be extended to cover 50 hours and six days.
      ETL accuses SEL of deliberately misleading people.
      ETL explains that its working-hour model offers the employees a chance to work an average of 36 hours per week for the wages of a full 40-hour week.
      “If a worker agrees to do overtime, normal overtime compensation will be paid in accordance with the law on working hours. Participation in the agreed working hour arrangements is voluntary”, ETL says.
      National Conciliator Esa Lonka’s first mediation proposal was rejected by the Food Workers' Union on April 6th.
      The mediation efforts are set to continue today, Tuesday.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Food workers start three-day strike at selected bakeries and meat processing plants (7.4.2010)
  One food strike is averted; a bigger one is still pending, as is lockout from employers´ side (12.4.2010)

Links:
  SEL, the Finnish Food Workers´ Union
  ETL, Finnish Food and Drinks Industries´ Federation (English site being renewed)

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