Mail and parcel deliveries to businesses and private customers in Finland could be hit by a two-week strike next month in a dispute over restructuring measures by local postal operator Posti.
The Finnish Post and Logistics Union (PAU) has announced an all-out strike from Monday November 11 until Sunday November 24 unless a solution is negotiated by then. The strike is expected to generate a backlog of several weeks for delivery of letters and magazines, and several days for parcels.
For the past few weeks the two sides have been negotiating a new collective agreement to replace the current one that expires at the end of October. The union claims that Posti wants to replace the postal collective agreement with a “cheaper” one based on different working conditions and with lower pay levels.
But the postal operator said it is not seeking seek pay cuts for the next agreement period in the negotiations, and contrary to PAU’s claims, salaries and evening and night shift allowances will remain at the level of PAU’s current collective agreement.
“It is very unfortunate for all parties and especially for our customers that instead of solutions that secure future jobs, we are facing industrial action again,” said Yrjö Eskola at Postal Services.
“We are very concerned that PAU’s claims create uncertainty among both our employees and our customers. As an employer, Posti is committed to ensuring that individual salaries will not decrease and that evening and night shift allowances are guaranteed for the next agreement period. We are not seeking to weaken terms of employment in the negotiations but trying to find a solution that ensures work for Posti’s employees also in the future.”
Posti has about 22,000 employees and 11 collective agreements in place for various positions. The PAU agreement covers about 42% of the personnel, or some 10,000 workers.
“Each delivery is important to our customers as well as to us. A large part of Posti’s employees wants to keep the promise of uninterrupted service to our customers. We will do everything in our power to minimize any negative impacts of strikes,” Eskola added.
