Ongoing strike at UPM mills extended by 2 more weeks

The going strike of the Finnish Paperworkers’ Union at the mills of the forest-based industry company UPM has been extended by two more weeks until 5 February, said the UPM in a press release on Wednesday.

The union started the strike at UPM Pulp, UPM Biofuels, UPM Communication Papers, UPM Specialty Papers and UPM Raflatac units in Finland on 1 January and earlier it was scheduled to be continued until 22 January, unless new agreements are reached by this time.

“If the members of the Paperworkers’ Union want to continue the strike, they naturally have every right to do so. UPM’s goal continues to be to start business specific negotiations with the union as soon as possible. Negotiations are the only way forward. It is important that the negotiations for new agreements begin with a forward-looking mindset and determination to find the best solution for each business and its personnel” said Jyrki Hollmén, Vice President, Labour Markets at UPM.

Just before the strike started, UPM received from the Paperworkers’ Union an email proposal for a new collective labour agreement, without any prior negotiation contact. The proposal was practically the same old collective agreement, which expired at the end of 2021. UPM, however, aims to have genuine interactive negotiations on the new terms of labour.

The Paperworkers’ Union has not excluded any work from the strike, not even critical tasks, such as operating and maintenance of water treatment and power plants.

UPM businesses falling under the strikes are UPM Pulp, UPM Biofuels, UPM Communication Papers, UPM Specialty Papers and UPM Raflatac.

The strike, however, do not concern UPM Plywood and UPM Timber, both of which signed business specific collective agreements with the Industrial Union in December. UPM Energy will be also operated normally as it complies with the generally applied collective agreements of the energy industry.