The Paper Workers’ Union announced on Thursday that UPM’s mill workers will continue the ongoing strike until the end of April unless an agreement is reached with the company on a new collective agreement.
The strike was due to end by mid-April, but negotiations between the forest company and the union on wage and working conditions in the sector have not yielded results.
The strike began on January 1 and involves about 2,000 workers at 12 paper mills.
Since the beginning of the negotiations, UPM has said that it prefers to negotiate on a unit-by-unit basis, as the company says the business is so different that an individual collective agreement would not apply.
Initially opposed to this approach, the union agreed in February to negotiate on a unit-by-unit basis.
However, the Confederation of Finnish Industry began funding the strike wages of members of the Paper Workers ’Union, a sign that the controversy is more entrenched than ever.