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 19 February, said the UPM in a press release on Thursday.

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 Thursday decided to extend further until 19 February unless new agreements are reached by this time.

“Only in the negotiations will it be possible to open up the goals of the parties and seek solutions together. Our businesses are very different from each other, which is why business-specific agreements are essential to us. Our focus is not on next month or next year, but on pursuing agreements that will enable each business to succeed well into the future. Business success also benefits our employees,” said Jyrki Hollmén, Vice President, Labour Markets at UPM.

“By agreeing on a business-by-business basis, also the needs of local personnel can be taken into account. We want to be a fair and attractive employer in the future as well, which means, among other things, maintaining a good level of annual salaries. I believe that it is possible for us to find agreements for each business that all parties can be satisfied with,” Hollmén added.

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.

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.

UPM Energy will be also operated normally as it complies with the generally applied collective agreements of the energy industry.

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, said the press release.