Finnish Paper Sector Wage Accords Divert Between ICEM Affiliates

Second-year salary adjustments for some 20,000 white- and blue-collar Finnish pulp and paper workers ran separate courses over the past 12 days, with ICEM affiliate Pro – representing 4,000 salaried professionals – issuing a strike notice on 23 March against one company. A two-week strike will begin on 6 April at all UPM operations if official government mediation beginning today fails.

Meanwhile, Paperiliitto, representing 16,000 workers at some 60 paper operations, agreed to terms with the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF) on 16 March. Workers will receive a guaranteed 2.5%, or €.41-per-hour increase. The union also granted other adjustments in the collective agreement.

Both ICEM affiliates have been negotiating separately with the FFIF on wage terms for the back end of a two-year labour agreement. The parties had until last week to reach accord, or bargaining is automatically shifted into the government’s dispute resolution process.

Pro, formerly Toimihenkilöunioni or TU prior to a merger in December with the insurance and banking union Suora, gave the strike warning because FFIF refused to put forward a similar national pay offer as the one given and accepted by Paperiliitto. Instead, there was no increase extended on the national level, with employers saying wage hikes will only be negotiated on a mill-by-mill basis. That stand quickly became an insult to dedicated staff.

“We seek a binding pay formula in this portion of the collective agreement,” said Jukka Hämäläinen, chief Pro negotiator for the paper sector. “We want a system that recognizes the increased work and greater responsibility taken on by our members.” Hämäläinen said only a short few years ago, there were 6,000 white-collar workers in Finland’s pulp and paper sector. That number is now 4,000.

The union will begin an overtime ban on 1 April, the date the current two-year agreement is terminated if no resolve is realized. And then at 06h00 on 6 April, a full strike by 1,000 Pro members at UPM will commence that is certain to affect production at the Helsinki-based company’s Finnish mills.

In the accord between Paperiliitto and the FFIF, blue-collar workers receive effective today a 1.5%, or €.24-per-hour increase, and then another 1% (€.17) will be negotiated on the local level. If that isn’t accomplished by 21 April, then it reverts back to the national level where a process is established to guarantee that increase retroactive to 28 March.

Paperiliitto also agreed to grant local branches the option to increase work shifts from ten hours per day to 12, although it is mandated that there be no accumulative increase in yearly working hours. The union also agreed to a mobility clause, granting paper firms the flexibility to make short-term transfers of new hires employed in maintenance areas to other company operations. For current maintenance workers, companies must get one-time or more consent agreements from the individual for such a temporary transfer.

The union agreed to the mobility language as deterrent to the use of outside contract or agency labour, and to assure that maintenance work will continuously be performed by Paperiliitto members.