Read this article in:
15 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 13/2005
The ICEM continues to fully support Finnish affiliated trade union Paperiliitto in its struggle to fend off harsh concessionary measures from the Finnish Forest Industries Federation.
The employers’ group has paralysed the Finnish paper industry now for over three weeks with a lockout of some 25,000 paperworkers represented by Paperiliitto. The lockout, which started 18 May, has been extended twice by the paper companies and now is scheduled to last until the end of June.
Paperiliitto’s Executive Committee rejected a mediator's proposal on Sunday, 5 June, an offer that accommodated many of the concessionary demands including the unlimited right to outsource work. The issue of contract and agency labour is a major concern to the 20-million-member ICEM and the global union federation has mounted an international education and awareness campaign on it in order to ensure full-time employment.
The mediator’s proposal, backing the Finnish Forest Industries Federation, would mean that in the coming years the jobs and livelihoods of every third paperworker in the sector—between 5,000 and 10,000 full-time-workers—would be endangered.
After refusing late last year to enter the national incomes policy agreement, which was signed by nearly all other industrial sectors in Finland, paper employers are seeking to destroy the social standards of Finnish paperworkers with their harsh concessionary proposals. The mediated proposal seeks to weaken worker protections against layoffs and fails to adequately address the union’s own proposal on mandatory shutdown days of paper mills.
''The mediated proposal is not a reasonable compromise,'' said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. "The ICEM and its 425 affiliated trade unions will continue to support our brothers and sisters of Paperiliitto for a fair and equitable labour agreement."
The ICEM also backs its sister organisation, the European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers' Federation (EMCEF), which will investigate whether the real purpose of the lockout is to increase paper prices in Europe through a deliberate strategy by the major paper companies to reduce supply.
Paperiliitto concludes its three-day statutory Congress tomorrow in Helsinki, and the union has not only found resounding support from trade unions from within Finland but globally as well. Paper union delegates from several countries were on hand to lend support, including union members of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers of Canada who have been on strike against Finnish company UPM Kymmene since 16 December at a paper mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick.
The employers’ group has paralysed the Finnish paper industry now for over three weeks with a lockout of some 25,000 paperworkers represented by Paperiliitto. The lockout, which started 18 May, has been extended twice by the paper companies and now is scheduled to last until the end of June.
Paperiliitto’s Executive Committee rejected a mediator's proposal on Sunday, 5 June, an offer that accommodated many of the concessionary demands including the unlimited right to outsource work. The issue of contract and agency labour is a major concern to the 20-million-member ICEM and the global union federation has mounted an international education and awareness campaign on it in order to ensure full-time employment.
The mediator’s proposal, backing the Finnish Forest Industries Federation, would mean that in the coming years the jobs and livelihoods of every third paperworker in the sector—between 5,000 and 10,000 full-time-workers—would be endangered.
After refusing late last year to enter the national incomes policy agreement, which was signed by nearly all other industrial sectors in Finland, paper employers are seeking to destroy the social standards of Finnish paperworkers with their harsh concessionary proposals. The mediated proposal seeks to weaken worker protections against layoffs and fails to adequately address the union’s own proposal on mandatory shutdown days of paper mills.
''The mediated proposal is not a reasonable compromise,'' said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. "The ICEM and its 425 affiliated trade unions will continue to support our brothers and sisters of Paperiliitto for a fair and equitable labour agreement."
The ICEM also backs its sister organisation, the European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers' Federation (EMCEF), which will investigate whether the real purpose of the lockout is to increase paper prices in Europe through a deliberate strategy by the major paper companies to reduce supply.
Paperiliitto concludes its three-day statutory Congress tomorrow in Helsinki, and the union has not only found resounding support from trade unions from within Finland but globally as well. Paper union delegates from several countries were on hand to lend support, including union members of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers of Canada who have been on strike against Finnish company UPM Kymmene since 16 December at a paper mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick.