New food workers’ strike to be postponed by two weeks

A new and considerably larger strike by the Finnish Food Workers' Union (SEL), scheduled to begin from Tuesday, will now be postponed by two weeks. Following a recommendation from National Conciliator Esa Lonka, Minister of Labour Anni Sinnemäki (Green League) decided on postponing the strike late on Friday evening.

The Ministry of Labour has the authority to postpone the beginning of an industrial action by a maximum of two weeks, if the action is feared to cause substantial damage to certain vital functions of society.

The decision to postpone the beginning of the strike was brought on by the veterinary and animal welfare problem related to slaughtering pigs.

Lonka convened a meeting of the two parties to the labour dispute - SEL and the Finnish Food and Drink Industries Federation (ETL) - on Friday, even though the situation had remained deadlocked after Thursday’s talks.

The two parties’ difference in views has remained so great that there have been no grounds for issuing a fourth proposal for a mediated settlement.

So far SEL has rejected the previous three mediation attempts.

Restaurants and canteens in Finland will encounter ever-increasing difficulties, especially if after the two-week delay the escalated strike will take place.

Menus will have to be altered, when some of the normal raw materials will no longer be available.

Especially the availability of various meat products has become more difficult. There is a great chance that steaks and such will appear more sparsely on the revised menus.

Many restaurants also face the threat of running out of beer if the industrial action continues. The Mother’s Day lunches on May 9th were still served with little changes to the menus, but the coming weeks will bring on significant problems if the industrial action continues.

Managing director Timo Lappi of the Finnish Tourism and Restaurant Industries Federation, MARA, frets that the problems related to the shortage of raw materials are happening at the worst possible time.

“When the restaurant field’s sales figures are already low because of the recession, the last thing we want is further problems related to the availability of ingredients”, Lappi says.

The shelves of Finnish grocery stores are gradually filling up again with new products after last week’s strike organised by SEL.

For example meat products by Atria and bakery products by Fazer are expected to arrive in shops in large quantities by Wednesday. Both companies believe the selections of their products will be back to normal by Thursday.

Director Jussi Tolvanen of Finland’s Local Store, the owner of the retail chains Siwa, Valintatalo, and Euromarket, estimates that the outlets’ assortments of products will not be complete until sometime next week.

The ongoing partial food workers’ strike will end today, Monday.

The next strike covering the entire foodstuffs sector that Sinnemäki has now postponed by two weeks was originally scheduled to begin tomorrow.