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28 January, 2008
Tomorrow, 29 January in Helsinki, Finland, ICEM pulp and paper affiliates Paperiliitto and Toimihenkilöunioni TU will hold a Public Meeting over Stora Enso’s decision to close two mills in Finland, as well as a paper machine at a third mill.
The event, entitled "Work - Not a Support Package," is expected to draw thousands of concerned Finnish citizens, as the two unions and other groups bring pressure to bear on Stora Enso, as well as the Finnish government, which holds 16% of the company’s stock.
Concern is also expected to arise at the meeting over Stora’s decision to close the Norrsundet mill in Sweden, and the company’s cutting of white-collar jobs in several European countries.
The Public Meeting, to be held at the Marina Congress Center in Helsinki, will feature a panel discussion led by Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen and Toimihenkilöunioni TU President Antti Rinne. The panel discussion will include representatives from the government, including Defence Minister Jyri Häkämies, who is responsible for enterprise ownership steering for the Nordic nation. It is hoped that Stora Enso’s senior managers will also attend.
The Public Meeting will feature an address entitled “Life in the Shadow of a Mill” by noted Finnish actor and film director, Kari Väänänen.
The meeting will begin at 10h00 outside the Congress Center with a meal of soup, and the programme opens inside at 12h00. Also addressing concerned Finnish citizens will be Lauri Ihalainen, President of SAK, the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions; Jaakko Kiander, Director of the Labour Institute of Economic Research; and Heikki Nivala, leader of a mass movement at Kemijärvi, one of the Finnish mills targeted for closure.
In late October 2007, Stora Enso announced another restructuring, this time aimed at closing mills, reducing paper capacity, and chopping jobs – 1,700 in total. Some 1,100 of those jobs were to be cut in Finland.
Following incomplete social dialogue in mid-January, the company announced that the job losses in Finland would total 985. But it also announced that closure to its Summa, Finland, newsprint and book papers mill in Kymenlaakso would occur at the of January 2008, costing 450 jobs; the Kemijärvi pulp mill, employing 214, would shut, in April 2008; and a paper machine at the Anjala mill would stop producing in November 2008, costing 122 jobs.
Stora Enso also intends to close the Norrsundet pulp mill in Sweden by the end of the year, idling 350 workers who are represented by Swedish ICEM affiliates Svenska Pappers and Unionen, the white-collar private-sector union in Sweden.
Paperiliitto and white-collar union Toimihenkilöunioni in Finland seek to delay the closings, and if necessary, to force Stora Enso through the state to sell the mills to companies or enterprises that will operate them. The unions have taken job actions over the past two weeks at the mills, with Toimihenkilöunioni also taking strike action last week at other Finnish companies partly owned by the state, including Finnair, telecommunications operators Elisa and TeliaSonera, alcohol manufacturer Altia, and Patria, a weapons manufacturer.
The ICEM is strongly supporting the efforts of Finnish trade unions, as well as those in Sweden for job retention and a continuation of dialogue among social partners on Stora Enso’s restructuring plan. Scores of protest letters were sent last week by global pulp and paper unions, as well as trade unions from the graphical and wood-products sectors, calling on the company to re-think its plans.
In a letter to Stora Enso CEO Jouko Karvinen, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda urged the company to “seriously consider the multiplied devastation” that the job losses will have in the affected communities.
“Stora Enso can expect this issue to arise within its own global operations, the operations of other pulp and paper companies worldwide, as well as with stakeholders who are concerned with good governance,” the ICEM wrote.