Lockout continues in the Finnish pulp and paper industry

The shutdown at Finland’s pulp and paper mills continues. The Finnish paperworkers’ Union announced on Sunday that it was unable to approve the settlement proposal of National Conciliator Juhani Salonius on terms of employment in the industry. This means that the Finnish Forest Industries Federation, representing the employers, will continue its lockout at pulp and paper mills. Last Tuesday the Federation announced that its third consecutive 14-day lockout would begin when the present lockout ends on 15 June, thereby continuing this measure by the employers until the end of June, unless the dispute is settled before this time. As a counter-measure, the Finnish Paperworkers’ Union has called a strike for the duration of the lockout in the minor branches of the pulp and paper industry that are not affected by the lockout.

The settlement proposal of the National Conciliator was communicated to the parties last Wednesday. The proposal was unacceptable to the Finnish Paperworkers’ Union, however, as it included several employee concessions compared to the previous collective agreement. These concessions concerned such aspects as the use of outside labour, decisions on layoffs, and mill shutdowns at Christmas and Midsummer.

The Board of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions &#;8211 SAK considered the bargaining situation in the pulp and paper industry at its meeting on Monday of this week. The discussion among the Presidents of trade unions affiliated to SAK characterised the contract dispute as a matter of principle. Speakers at the meeting were strongly opposed to the idea that a trade union should be willing to make concessions in its collective agreements in order to achieve an agreement in line with the comprehensive incomes policy settlement. The discussion also stressed that the current industrial dispute is specifically a lockout declared by the employers, and not a strike by the Finnish Paperworkers’ Union. This means that the Finnish Forest Industries Federation is responsible for the losses that its own members incur due to the lockout, and for the impact of the dispute on other Finnish enterprises and any damage to the national economy.

The Board of SAK held that the time was still not yet ripe for formal collective decisions supporting the paperworkers, but that each trade union would independently make its own decisions as to possible sympathetic action. This will be based on a request from the Finnish Paperworkers’ Union for supportive measures specifically targeting the operations of forest industry corporations and not outsiders, stressing the principle that nobody should perform work that is subject to lockout or strike measures. The SAK-affiliated trade unions that have made or are making their own decisions on supportive measures are the Finnish Electrical Workers’ Union, the Construction Trade Union, the Wood and Allied Workers’ Union, Service Union United (PAM), the Metalworkers’ Union and the Chemical Workers’ Union. The announcement made by these trade unions indicate that supportive measures will primarily target work that is covered by the lockout and work that is normally performed during mill shutdowns.

The Swedish paperworkers’ union Pappers has announced that it will continue its sympathetic action in support of the Finnish Paperworkers’ Union. Pappers has declared an overtime ban at the mills of Stora Enso, Metsä-Tissue, M-real and Ahlström in Sweden. The Swedish construction, engineering, electrical and wood and forestry sector trade unions have announced that they will support this overtime ban by refusing to perform any work that is covered by the overtime ban in the pulp and paper industry.

See also:

Press release of the Council of the Finnish Paper Workers’ Union (5 June, 2005, on the Union’s website)