Tempers flare over harbour strike

Employers’ group wants higher fines and monetary damages for illegal strikes

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Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) and Finnish labour union leaders are not warming to increasingly strident demands from business to place tougher restrictions on the right to strike.
      The Confederation of Finnish Industry (EK) on Thursday appealed to the government and labour unions to increase fines for unauthorised strikes, and for the possibility to hold strikers liable for monetary damage caused by such action.
      The Finnish Transport Workers' Union (AKT) organised a number of unauthorised stoppages in the runup to the harbour strike which began on Thursday, which has paralysed most of Finland’s cargo ports. With their strike, stevedores are pushing for better job security.
     
Vanhanen said in Parliament on Thursday that he does not want to get into negotiations on the right to strike in the midst of a legal strike. Labour unions say that the EK demand primarily interferes with efforts to resolve the ongoing dispute.
      The EK is looking for ways to exert pressure, which only make negotiations more difficult”, says Lauri Lyly, President of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK).
     
AKT President Timo Räty says that the fines imposed on unions for illegal strikes are not insignificant.
      The fine can be as high as EUR 25,000, and it can be imposed on several union locals, and on several consecutive days.
      On Thursday EK held an exceptionally dramatic press conference, accusing Räty and the 3,000 stevedores affiliated with the AKT of wrecking budding economic growth in Finland.
      Attending the press conference was the entire EK presidium, comprising Finland’s most influential industrial leaders.
      EK chairman Sakari Tammi, who is also the CEO of the steel manufacturer Rautaruukki, said that the strike is bringing much of Finnish industry to a grinding halt, because supplies of raw materials are being interrupted, and exports are obstructed.
     
The forest industry estimates that it is losing 30 million euros from the strike each day, and that mill closures are inevitable. Daily losses for the technology industry add up to 70 million euros.
      The most serious consequence of the strike in the view of EK is that Finland’s reputation as a reliable supplier is suffering.
      “TImo Räty’s strike is destroying more jobs in Finland than there are stevedores in Finland”, said Jorma Eloranta, CEO of the engineering company Metso.
     
Timo Räty disputed claims by industry that the stevedores strike is stopping production at this point.
      He said that the UPM’s mill in Rauma did not stop because of the strike. He said that the mill simply brought forward a scheduled stoppage for maintenance.
      SAK’s Lyly notes that EK itself wanted collective bargaining with individual unions, instead of a centralised agreement.


Links:
  Stevedores´ strike at Finnish seaports begins (4.3.2010)

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