Harbour strike forces UPM to shut down three paper mills

The Finnish paper manufacturer UPM has shut down three newspaper and magazine paper mills over the ongoing strike by stevedores at Finnish harbours.

The Rauma mill, the Kaukaa mill in Lappeenranta, and the Kaipola mill in Jämsä. In addition, newspaper and magazine paper production lines have been stopped at the Jämsänkoski mill.
Arto Lampinen, the UPM director responsible for paper production says that the company will cut back on the manufacture of special grades of paper in Tervasaari, Pietarsaari, and Jämsänkoski if the strike continues.
“We have to look constantly when and what we need to shut down”, Lampinen says.

Ordinarily the mills that have been shut down are capable of keeping a few days’ worth of production in storage on site.
“Now ready paper will not fit anywhere”, Lampinen says.

UPM employs 4,300 people at its paper mills in Finland. So far, the stoppages are affecting nearly 2,000 paper workers. UPM says that the number might rise to about 3,000 if the production of special grades is shut down toward the end of the week.
Under labour legislation, employees are paid for seven days after production is suspended under these types of circumstances. At the Rauma mill, where production began closing down already last week, the time limit will be reached on Thursday.

"Everybody hopes that some kind of a reasonable settlement can be reached by then”, Lampinen says.
Stora Enso, another large forest industry company, said on Monday that the harbour strike is not yet affecting operations at the company. However, if the strike continues, it is possible that machinery at the company’s mill in Varkaus might be shut down.

Negotiations aimed at ending the harbour strike are resuming on Tuesday. The key issue involves job security and severance pay. The Finnish Transport Workers Union (AKT) is demanding severance pay equivalent to a year’s earnings in situations in which an employee is terminated. The management side sees this as an unreasonable demand.
The Paperworkers’ Union has expressed understanding with the harbour workers. Helsingin Sanomat asked the union’s chairman, Jouko Ahonen, if the solidarity is likely to continue if stoppages at paper mills continue for more than seven days.
Ahonen noted that workers at paper mills have experienced personally how job security in Finland is weaker than in several European countries, and he insists that most paper workers support the dock woorkers.
“But naturally, there are some individual voices who make more noise.”
“Everyone is losing here, and that is why it would e good to get this to end as soon as possible”, Ahonen says.

Helsingin Sanomat (International Edition)