24-hour transport strike begins to support Posti strike

The Transport Workers’ Union AKT has begun a sympathy strike early Monday in support of the ongoing national postal workers’ strike.

The strike in the transport sector began at 3: 00am and will end on at 3:00am on Tuesday.

The strike will also affect bus services in the Helsinki Regional Transport Authority (Helsingin seudun liikenne – HSL) in the capital.

According to city of Helsinki, commuter trains, the metro, trams and the Suomenlinna ferry will run as usual. Rail services may be more congested than usual on Monday.

News agency Xinhua adds: the scene of Finnish labor relations saw increased conflict on Sunday, as a major support action for the striking postal workers will ground the bulk of international transit on Monday.

The failure to solve the two-week-old postal conflict on Sunday triggered pre-announced solidarity measures by unions mainly in the transport sector.

The ground services personnel strike, as announced, will force the national carrier Finnair to cancel some 280 flights on Monday. Foreign carriers flying to Finland also largely use the services of employees that belong to the striking union.

While the measures affecting air transport would end on Tuesday, the Finnish Seafarers' Union will stop Baltic cruisers under Finnish flag indefinitely once they reach a Finnish port.

The union also stops cargo ships and will thus impact the export industries.

In a new move, the Industrial Union, the largest sector union in the country, announced walkout plans in the key technological industries for early December.

Prime Minister Antti Rinne on Sunday repeated his pledge, given in parliament earlier this week, that the government will stop such "union shopping" done only to reduce salaries.

Rinne talked on national radio before the deadlock of the postal talks was known.

Pirjo Auvinen, a news analyst at the public broadcaster Yle, said that the "employer camp" has created a situation where the government would have to intervene in the postal strike.

The Finnish Postal and Logistics Union (PAU) has launched the strike across the country from November 11 morning and is scheduled to continue till December 8.

PAU’s strike has made mail delivery very difficult across Finland.

The reason for the strike is the employer’s decision to force some 700 Posti employees into another collective agreement.