Posti workers’ strike set to escalate

The ongoing workers’ strike at Posti is hindering domestic and international mail delivery services, according to Posti, the company that operates the country’s postal and logistic services.

The Finnish Postal and Logistics Union -PAU has launched the strike across the country from November 11 morning and will continue till December 8.

PAU’s strike has made mail delivery more difficult across Finland. A minority of letters, magazines, and advertisements have been sorted and delivered to recipients by the working personnel, said a Posti press release on Wednesday.

“It is particularly regrettable that, for example, at some sites in Mikkeli, Tampere and Kuopio, PAU’s members have refused to perform safety tasks pertaining to citizens’ health and safety. This means that, for instance, food deliveries to kindergartens, schools and elderly people are at risk. PAU has broken the limits it set for itself for the strike. Fortunately, so far, we have been able to deliver these important shipments to our customers by means of special arrangements,” said Jarmo Ainasoja, head of Exception Management at Posti.

PAU has excluded from the strike, among others, local and national delivery of food, foodstuff, groceries, and pharmaceutical and hospital products related to health and safety. Until now, this work has been performed by trained personnel.

“We expect PAU to fulfill its promised responsibility and help ensure the normal delivery of these extremely important items so as to not risk the health and safety of people,” Ainasoja added.

Meanwhile, the strike in the postal sector is set to escalate as several other unions expressed their interest to extend support to the strike, according to Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK).

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

The Finnish Post and Logistics Union (PAU) is determined to resist this move, claiming that this would mean a serious cut in pay for their members. Negotiations failed to reach a mutually satisfactory outcome and so the strike action commenced.

JHL, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors announced that it will have a two-day solidarity strike starting on Tuesday, 19 November, if necessary. This would close down the freight train yards. The freight trains service would then strike the following day.

”The Posti management is trying in a completely unscrupulous, immoral way to achieve profit by stamping on terms of employment. They want employees to pay for the profit goals so cherished by Posti," said JHL President Päivi Niemi-Laine,

PAU enjoys close cooperation with other transport unions, and they all warn that using strike breakers will lead to wider sympathy strikes affecting areas like sea and air traffic. The Finnish Aviation Union (IAU) has already stopped handling mail at all airports.

The question of strike-breakers is relevant, as Posti normally uses quite a lot of rental labour. According to PAU, there have already been signs that rental labour and people with zero-hours contracts have been recruited to do work during the strike.

Right now the postal strike covers workers in mail delivery, handling and transportation. PAU has announced that from 25 November the strike will cover all companies in the Posti Group. This would also close post offices and several other working places. This strike would then involve10,000 employees, one thousand more than now.