Profitable UPM sheds over 700 jobs in Finland

Corporate responsibility abandoned

(Helsinki 21.11.2004 - Juhani Artto) At the end of October there were hundreds of angry and disappointed timber and plywood workers around Finland. The forest industry giant UPM-Kymmene - a company with a long history of socially responsible behaviour - had announced a decision to eliminate 672 permanent jobs in Finland. The contracts of some 50 temporary employees would also not be renewed.

Anger ran especially high when the workers learned how little this Finnish-based, financially successful forest industry giant was ready to invest in severance packages. The packages offered were next to nothing, the workers commented.

Kalevi Vanhala, President of the Wood and Allied Workers' Union, says that UPM no longer deserves to be associated with the idea of corporate responsibility.

"Nowadays UPM seems only to look for bigger profits, while leaving society to carry the costs."

Read more about the job cuts in Trade Union News in Finland.