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9 November, 2005
A strike by over 300 paperworkers at Stora Enso's newsprint and publication papers mill in Gent, Belgium, ended 8 November.
The strike ended after 56% of the workers voted to continue the 11-day strike and 43% voted to return to work. The workforce had imposed a rule that at least 60% of the 330 blue-collar workers at Stora Enso's Langerbrugge mill must vote for continuation of any job action.
The strike's end means that an inferior wage offer presented by management on 7 November will go into effect. The wage package will cover two years. The strike was over management's posture at the negotiations table, which was bargaining by ultimatum rather than honest social dialogue to resolve the pay and other serious issues inside the mill.
The paper mill's managing director never entered talks, but rather other managers issued terse and reactive ultamatums at workers' representatives, stating such dictates were coming from him. The strike involved members of ICEM affiliate ABVV-FGTB, the socialist union in Belgium, as well as two other unions with membership inside the paper mill.