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1 December, 2008
On 17-18 November, Finland’s Transport Workers Union (AKT) imposed a two-day boycott on handling exports of all Stora Enso wood and paper products from Finland. The boycott occurred because the company allegedly told subcontractors at the Port of Kemi to refrain from signing labour agreements that are in line with the union’s pay and benefits package.
The union believes that all goods handled through ports should be done under terms of its labour agreement. Stora Enso insists on lower standards for sub-contract workers. AKT did the same action last summer at the Port of Kemi.
On 17 and 18 November, unionised dockworkers were refusing to unload trains or trucks delivering wood and paper from Stora mills at Kotka and Hamina. Kotka is one of the bigger export points for the Finnish company’s products. The Port of Kemi was not affected by last month’s two-day boycott.
In other Stora Enso news, the company has completed its mandatory social talks with trade unions at its Imatra and Anjalankoski operations, two mills included in the firm’s most recent restructuring which has caused thousands of retrenchments. A total of 330 paperworkers will lose their jobs when paper machines and coating operations are shuttered in 2008. At Imatra’s Tainionkoski mill two weeks ago, a worker was killed when he was squeezed inside a roll packing machine.
In Germany, Stora’s supervisory board made the decision a week ago to shut down a coated paper machine at the Kabel Mill and endorsed the company’s September restructuring announcement that a containerboard machine would be shut at the Baienfurt mill. A total of 520 German jobs will be lost.