Tuesday November 26, 2024

Ongoing strike at UPM mills extended by 2 more weeks

Published : 01 Apr 2022, 01:37

Updated : 01 Apr 2022, 01:41

  DF Report
File Photo: UPM by Tuomas Uusheimo.

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 30 April, said the UPM in a press release on Thursday.

The union on Thursday announced the extension to the strike at most UPM’s Finnish mills, unless new collective labour agreements are reached before that.

Yet another extension of two weeks to the strike comes at a moment when negotiations between the union and UPM businesses continue intensively, and the conciliator has submitted a settlement proposal in the negotiations between UPM Pulp and the union.

The parties must state their position on the proposal by 14 April.

"Drafting of business specific collective agreements, led by the conciliator, has continued intensively during the past weeks. There is already a settlement proposal for UPM Pulp. Now it is important to focus on solving the open questions in the remaining UPM businesses", said Jyrki Hollmén, Vice President, Labour markets, UPM.

The Paperworkers’ Union’s strike at UPM Pulp, UPM Biofuels, UPM Communication Papers, UPM Specialty Papers and UPM Raflatac units in Finland began 1 January 2022 and extended several times.

Currently, approximately 200 union members work at the mills in tasks critical to society, such as power plants and water treatment facilities.

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 16 March, the going strike of the Finnish Paperworkers’ Union has been extended by two more weeks until 16 April.