Strikes bring Finnish paper industry to standstill

摘要

The entire Finnish paper industry ground to a halt on the night of Sunday 1 5 May as thousands of workers chose to strike, after labour talks regarding overtime broke down between unions and employers' organisations on Saturday. Pulp factories in almost 20 municipalities closed, with the remaining paper and cardboard factories shutting down on the morning of Monday 1 6 May. The stoppage applies to all 40 paper mills and 14 cardboard factories in Finland. Altogether, the strike involves around 24,000 members of the Finnish Paper Workers' Union. The Finnish Forest Industries Federation, which represents the paper companies, including global giants such as UPM Kymmene, M-real and Stora Enso, resumed talks on Tuesday under the leadership of state conciliator, Juhani Salonius but these ended in deadlock, and a lockout by producers, originally planned to last two weeks, was stretched to a month in a surprise announcement. Employees affected by the lockout will not be paid for as long as it continues, which at the moment is up until the morning of 15 June.