Labor strikes continue in Finland as union AKT rejected National Conciliator's proposal

Posted on February 27, 2023   |  

The Finnish Transport Workers Union (AKT)’s turned down a settlement proposal by the National Conciliator, as a result, strikes continued and Finnish ports are paralyzed.

The AKT launched a series of strikes in ports and 3 segments of road transport to secure pay raises and prevent the decline of real wages.

The rejected proposal offered pay rises that fall short of those in manufacturing industries and failed to address any other terms and conditions of employment.

The union complained that all text questions important to ACP members, which would have affected the working conditions of the employees and replaced the workload, were removed from the proposal. In the mediator’s proposal, the percentages did not even reach the previously negotiated level in the technology industry.

The strikes impacted several other sectors, including can and bottle recycling machines, waste management services, and raw material availability at manufacturing sites.

As a result of a temporary backlog at the logistics center of Posti, the Finnish Post and Logistics Union (PAU) initiated a sympathy strike, causing a delay of 1-2 weeks for letter deliveries and 5-7 days for parcel deliveries.

The AKT members plan to launch another series of strikes from March 1 to 8, unless a breakthrough is achieved in the collective bargaining talks.