New plan to end Finnish dock strike

Finland’s state mediator has put forward a proposal to end the stevedore strike that has brought the country’s trade to a standstill.

Stevedores and port operators will discuss it today, after the strike entered its third week yesterday.

The Finnish Port Operators’ Association said: “Negotiations at the national conciliator’s office continued from untll 3am [today] between representatives of the central organisations EK [Confederation of Finnish Industries] and SAK [Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions].”

It said the national conciliator had put forward his proposal shortly afterwards and is expecting a response by 1pm this afternoon.

The strike started on 4 March, when negotiations over redundancy packages and working conditions between transport workers’ union AKT and the Finnish Port Operators’ Association broke down.

Forest product shippers UPM and Stora Enso have been forced to close mills because of the strike, estimating it is costing them around €2.5m (US$3.3m) to €3 million a day.

Juha Vanhainen, Stora Enso’s country manager for Finland, said: “The strike will severely tarnish the reputation of the Finnish forest products industry and its whole value chain.”

UPM’s senior VP for paper manufacturing Arto Lampinen added: “In recent years our paper mills have worked hard to improve their competitiveness. This strike destroys the good results of that work.”

The confederation of Finnish Industries said the stevedoring strike was crippling foreign trade and estimated that export losses amounted to €110 million a day. (source IFW)

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