The Board of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) announced today that the trade unions will suspend the political industrial action on 8 April. However, the SAK Board of Directors will assess the situation at its next meeting on 18 April.
SAK President Jarkko Eloranta commented: "The government has stated that it will not seek solutions with the employees during the strikes. We are now giving the Orpon-Purra government room to manoeuvre. The strikes will be suspended on Monday 8 April. However, we are ready for talks before then".
On Monday 11 March, the Finnish trade unions began a two-week strike, which was extended twice and will now last until 6 am EET on Monday 8 April.
With the strikes, the unions were taking action against the government's plans to weaken workers' rights and social security, SAK explained. In total, around 7,000 workers from the industrial union, the automotive and transport workers' union AKT, the services union PAM, the Finnish construction union, the public service and welfare union JHL and the electricity union went on strike.
The transport workers' strike brought activity in Finnish export harbours to a standstill and had a significant impact on the heavily export-oriented Finnish paper and pulp industry.
