Hope was short-lived. In the last few days, the conciliator for UPM's management and the Finnish paperworkers' union had four collective bargaining agreements for five of the Group's units. But today the union rejected all four proposals. The strike began on January 1 is therefore continuing.
With 2,000 people on strike, all production sites in Finland for UPM Pulp, UPM Communication Papers, UPM Specialty Papers, UPM Raflatac labels and the UPM Biofuels biorefinery are paralysed.
"We are deeply disappointed by the union's decision and by the continuation of the strike, which has already lasted three and a half months. UPM has negotiated in a serious spirit and has made several compromises. We have also accepted the proposals of the conciliator. The modernization of the agreement dating from the 1940s would be important for both the employees and the company." says Jyrki Hollmén, vice president of labor markets at UPM.
"The mediation resulted in proposed agreements for four companies that took into account the needs and wishes of both parties . We were confident that both sides were committed to accepting these settlement proposals and that industrial peace would resume." he laments.
In a separate statement, the union said it could not accept the proposals because the four agreements only covered UPM Pulp, UPM Specialty Papers, UPM Raflatac and UPM Biofuels, thus covering only half of the unionized employees. No agreement was proposed for UPM Communication Papers. "The decision to reject the offer was made unanimously."
The union also regrets the lack of response from management to their request for negotiations concerning UPM Communication Papers. "If a solution to the dispute had been reached, there would have been no need to reject the other settlement proposals."
"UPM has backed itself into a corner with radical goals and does not seem willing to back down while the strike has been going on for 104 days, the mills have zero profit for the first half of the year and customers are suffering from a shortage of materials." says Petri Vanhala, president of the paper union.
He adds: "The paper union is not seeking better working conditions than the previous collective agreement, and the wage increase target is in line with the general line. Compared to other forestry companies, UPM's reluctance to reach an agreement has led to the company's employees being subjected to a totally unreasonable policy by the employer."
The end of the strike is postponed to May 14, unless agreements are reached before then.
