Ongoing strike at UPM mills extended by 3 more weeks

The going strike of the Finnish Paperworkers’ Union at the mills of the forest-based industry company UPM has been extended by three more weeks until 12 March, said the UPM in a press release.

The Union on Friday informed UPM that their strike at UPM’s Finnish mills will be extended further by three more weeks, unless new agreements are reached before that.

The Paperworkers’ Union’s strike at UPM Pulp, UPM Biofuels, UPM Communication Papers, UPM Specialty Papers and UPM Raflatac units in Finland started on 1 January.

Currently, about 200 union members are working in tasks critical to society, such as power plants and water treatment facilities.

The union simultaneously informed UPM that it is ready to negotiate with UPM businesses. UPM received an invitation to negotiations concerning UPM Pulp on7 February.

The invitation indicated that the negotiations would be carried out with the CLA advisory board of the union.

The board includes members of other forest products companies which means that discussions could be conducted on a very general level. Due to anti-trust compliance, genuine negotiations on UPM’s business-specific issues could not be conducted.

“It is impossible for us to have representatives of our competitors attend our negotiations. Unfortunately, week after week the Paperworkers’ Union seems to be playing for time at the expense of their members and UPM’s businesses. It is clear, that the Union is not ready for business-specific negotiations. This is also reflected in the fact that invitation has been sent to just one of our businesses, the pulp business. To minimise the significant damage caused by the strike, all five negotiation tables need to be opened,” said Jyrki Hollmén, Vice President, Labour markets, UPM in the press release.

“Business-specific collective labour agreements are essential to us. We aim to sign agreements in each of our businesses that enable success well into future, take the needs of local personnel into account, and maintain the excellent wage levels of the industry. Postponing the negotiations has already made it more difficult to achieve these goals,” Hollmén added.

UPM will service its customers from its mills outside of Finland to the extent possible. At this point, UPM does not disclose estimates of the economic impacts of the strikes.

Earlier, on 22 January the Transport Workers’ Union (Auto- ja Kuljetusalan Työntekijäliitto-AKT) announced a blockade against the forest-based industry company UPM to support the ongoing strikes of the Paperworkers’ Union and the Finnish Electrical Workers´ Union.

On 21 January, the Helsinki District Court issued a ruling that the heat production and water treatment units at all the plants of the forest-based industry company UPM must be kept outside of the ongoing strike enforced by the Finnish Paperworkers’ Union.

The court issued the order after hearing from both the parties following an plea submitted by the UPM authority.

According to the court ruling, the Paperworkers' Union must stop all strike action at all the plants of UPM that endangers the emergency functioning of society, or risk being fined two million euros.

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 initially it was scheduled to be continued until 22 January.

Earlier. on 5 January the union extended the strike until 5 February and on 20 January further extended the strike by two more weeks until 19 February.

The strike, however, does not concern UPM Plywood and UPM Timber, both of which signed business specific collective agreements with the Industrial Union in December.