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3 May, 2011
Ammattiliitto Pro, ICEM’s salaried workers’ trade union affiliate in Finland, is asking that white-collar workers at several paper companies not take on extra work in the coming weeks. The union seeks such global unity as it begins its third wave of lawful strikes next week, and continues ones tomorrow against the intransigent employers of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF).
The request also comes after government conciliator Esa Lonka today was unable to shape a compromise proposal because of FFIF intransigence in official mediation in Finland. It was the third consecutive week that employers failed to resolve a downward spiralling labour dispute by not recognising the unfair job demands on 4,000 clerical, technical, and front-line supervisory personnel.
Because of redundancies and speed-ups over the past several years in the Finnish pulp and paper sector, Pro members are asked to work more without adequate compensation, or without recognition of higher job competencies.
In addition to an overtime ban across all pulp and paper companies, strikes that began on 26 April by 1,500 Pro members are continuing this week at Stora Enso, Metsäliitto, Metsä-Botnia, M-real, and Metsä Tissue and a renewed strike will begin tomorrow by 1,000 salaried workers at UPM.
That strike will begin at 06h00 on 4 May and run until 06h00 on 7 May. It is the second strike action against UPM – the first one running from 6-20 April – and production at UPM’s six mills, as well at an administration centre in Tempere and an export facility at the port of Kotka will again be affected.
Ammattiliitto Pro expects employers to try to break the strike by bringing in replacement workers, moving administrative work elsewhere, and to continue to bully Pro members in order to get them to ignore the overtime ban and strike actions. (See prior ICEM report here.)
“Pro appeals for solidarity from workers of UPM-Kymmene, Stora Enso, Metsäliitto, Metsä-Botnia, M-real, Metsä Tissue, and Sappi in other countries not to perform any extra work of the type covered by the strikes, as the companies seek to break the strike by transferring the work abroad,” said the union.
The ICEM is calling on paperworkers throughout the world to support Ammattiliitto Pro in this critical dispute in Finland, and to monitor the administrative, financial, services workload in these pulp and paper companies in order to comply with the union’s request. Also, notes of solidarity should be sent to Pro President Antti Rinne, and collective bargaining directors Jukka Hämäläinen and Jari Uschanov.