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31 January, 2006
Mr. Jukka Härmälä
CEO
Stora Enso Oyj
Kanavaranta 1
FIN-00160 Helsinki
FINLAND
Sent Via Fax +358 2046 21471
Dear Mr. Härmälä,
The ICEM, a 20-million-member Global Union Federation with affiliates in 122 countries of the world, has been informed by our Canadian affiliate, the Communications, Energy and Paper Workers’ Union (CEP) of Canada, that the North American management of your company’s Port Hawkesbury mill in Nova Scotia locked out 600 workers with crippling effect on the whole of the local economy in that Canadian province.
The lock-out came as workers predictably rejected North American management’s contract proposal, which would have given managers unprecedented rights to outsource unionised work. Such a proposal regarding the use of contract labour is in total contradiction to the norms now in place regarding contract labour in the paper industry’s pattern agreement for Eastern Canada.
The ICEM strongly urges you to personally intervene to amicably resolve this dispute. We believe attitudes demonstrated by Stora Enso’s North American managers are contrary to your publicly-declared international principles of sustainability.
We appeal to you to apply the principled custom of Nordic fairness and to direct your North American managers to immediately reopen dialogue with the CEP to resolve this dispute.
The ICEM will closely monitor this dispute and we will bring it to the attention of our global affiliates who represent Stora Enso workers across the world. We look forward to an early and just settlement of this lockout.
Sincerely,
Fred Higgs
General Secretary