On Friday (4 February) UPM announced that strike action at its Finnish mills could be extended for a third time and by a further three weeks – until 12 March. The strike action began on 1 January and has already been extended twice.
Finnish trade publication Print&Media has reported that, following movement with the situation on Friday, negotiations have started today (7 February) for the UPM Pulp business and negotiations on UPM’s other divisions should also begin this week.
The publication was also sent a comment from labels division UPM Raflatac, in response to the warning from the European association for the self-adhesive label industry, Finat, on the availability of label stocks, which it shared with Printweek: “The strike further aggravates the industry level supply situation which has been tight and constrained already since early 2021.
“While we had prepared stocks to manage the situation, our delivery capability in Europe will be negatively impacted as the strike length has become longer. The specific impacts will vary depending on the product and delivery location.”
UPM CEO Jussi Pesonen has tweeted on the developing situation. On Saturday morning he said it was great that there was now a shared vision and commitment to building five business-specific agreements, and that negotiators from UPM and the Paperworkers’ Union would be sure to get win-win results.
Paperiliitto’s chairman Petri Vanhala responded positively to Pesonen’s tweet.
This morning (8 February), Pesonen tweeted that the UPM Pulp negotiations had opened yesterday in an open spirit and confirmed that four other businesses will be at the conference table tomorrow and in the coming days.
At the end of last month, AKT the Finnish Transport Workers’ Union commenced a blockade against UPM to support the strikes of Paperiliitto and the Finnish Electrical Workers’ Union.
Last week Paperiliitto said the Confederation of Finnish Industry was also suspending service and maintenance work at UPM’s mills that are affected by the strike, to support the union’s industrial action.
