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30 November, 2009
Strike actions occurred in Europe in recent days against South African pulp and paper producer Sappi. Workers holding memberships in four Dutch unions continue to be in dispute with Sappi at two mills in the Netherlands, Nijmegen and Maastricht.
And at one of two mills in Finland that Sappi purchased from M-real one year ago, Kirkniemi, members of the local branch of ICEM affiliate Paperiliitto took a four-day industrial action 19-23 November over serious safety issues.
At Nijmegen on 26 November, workers staged a 24-hour strike over the company’s failure to come to a terms in meeting minimal union demands for a new labour agreement. More actions are expected this week at Nijmegen and Maastricht.
On 24 November, Dutch unions FNV Bondgenoten, CNV Bedrijenbond, ACV, and De Unie issued a demand for a one-year wage increase, July 2009 to July 2010, of 1.5%. The unions, representing 800 workers at the two paper mills, also demand retention of “seniorendagen,” the annual reward days off for workers with long service careers. If this is to be lost in a new collective agreement, the unions said in a demands declaration, a financial equivalent for both senior workers and younger workers for the social benefit must be substituted.
Sappi Europe has been stingy in its pay offer, as well as unfair in benefit takeaways. In mid-September, workers rejected a 21-month Sappi proposal that was deemed inferior by a 95% vote. On 15 October, in a protest joined by ICEM and its global pulp and paper unions, 50 of the two mills’ workplace leaders took a petition to Sappi’s European headquarters in Brussels. (See InBrief No. 142 here.)
Following a revised company offer a few days later, union leaders again decided to take the proposal to Dutch workers at Nijmegen and Maastricht for a vote. They rejected that with a 99% vote.
At Kirkniemi in Finland, earlier this year, Sappi thinned job ranks by 63 workers from a workforce of 400. The 19-23 November strike was over the fact that the remaining workers have taken on more work duties and occupational safety has been jeopardized. Sappi bought five European coated paper mills from M-real in early 2009 and intends to completely close one of those mills – Kangas, Finland – by the end of this year, thus giving the sack to 150 members of Paperiliitto.
At a Sappi mill in North America, another labour dispute is coming to a head. Members of the United Steelworkers (USW), early in the week of 16 November, made a statement about a regressive Sappi contract proposal with an 82% rejection vote. Some 600 union members at a pulp and coated paper mill in Cloquet, Minnesota, have been without a current labour agreement since 1 May 2009. Sappi’s less than adequate pay offer contains no retroactive wages to that date. It also falls short in meeting pension offsets and the company has ignored a USW request to assist Sappi in finding lower-cost private health care alternatives.