The Transport Association (ACP) has announced a blockade to support striking paperworkers at UPM’s mills.
The ACP announced on Saturday that it would carry out the blockade in Finnish ports from 6 am on Monday. During the industrial action, ACP stevedores refuse to handle UPM’s paper, pulp and board products or raw materials. At the end of December, the ACP organized a port shutdown to support the employees of another forest industry company, Keitele Group.
UPM is applying for separate agreements
The ACP, which has 45,000 members, and the Paper Workers’ Union, which has about 34,000 members, are both part of a strong SAK trade union.
The paper workers ’union said Thursday it would continue its strike until at least mid-February if no agreement is reached.
UPM employees left work on New Year’s Day, when their collective agreement expired at the end of 2021.
UPM, one of the world’s largest paper manufacturers, is working to break a decades-long tradition by negotiating separate agreements for employees in five different business groups. The union insists that it follow a long-standing practice that one collective agreement applies to the whole group.
The heat and water personnel were assigned back to work
On Friday, the Helsinki District Court ordered the employees responsible for heat production and water treatment at UPM’s mills to return to work. Many plants in Finland provide district heating and water treatment to local communities in addition to their core operations. At the same time, UPM’s energy unit is Finland’s second largest electricity producer.
The court said that stopping such services would do "endangers the critical functioning of society" and threatened the union with a fine of two million euros.
The Back to Work order covers the premises of UPM and its subsidiaries in half a dozen locations from Rauma and Pietarsaari on the west coast to Lappeenranta, near the Russian border.
Source: The Nordic Page