Ordinary Nothing

A several weeks long worker’s strike in Finland’s paper industry continues, and the impressions now are that it will go on for quite some time.

As in most cases, the strike is related to working conditions and worker compensation. In this particular case it’s not that the workers wish to improve on an existing condition, but that the employers are changing their demands and require more work days from some of the workers. And while they offer compensation, the workers are not satisfied with it, and don’t think it covers the higher demands.

So far it seems a pretty simple case, but it becomes very odd when taking a better look at the details. First, what is it that the employers demand? They want to keep the mill open and working during Christmas and Midsummer. This will require that some of the workers will come to work on what was until now a vacation day.

Not having a midsummer vacation here, I decided to check how long is this midsummer vacation. One day, it would seem. And so is Christmas. So we’re talking two days extra work, though of course working on a traditional vacation isn’t fun.

But wait, according to the same calendar:

On Midsummer Eve and Christmas Eve, the schools, offices etc are closed, but shops are open part of the day.

Not to mention that according to the article:

the employers are thought to want to keep paper plants open during Christmas and mid-summer, saying other industries in Finland do not close down for these holidays.

So two days, where most other people work already, it would seem. So let’s see what is the measly compensation that got the workers so riled up about, shall we?

The Finnish Forest Industries Federation, which represents employers, is offering 1,600 euros and an 11-hour cut in annual hours as compensation for workers who might end up working during Christmas and mid-summer

11 hours cut would be, I assume, more than a single work day, though probably less than two work days. So it’s more like shifting the vacation of those days to other days, than just taking away a vacation day. And if those days were not paid vacations (like I know some holidays are, though I’m not sure in this case), it’s even an improvement in terms, since the workers get paid for working these days, and get paid vacation days instead of unpaid vacation days.

There’s of course the discomfort of not being home on these particular days, which the workers may want, which is where the monetary compensation part comes in. 1,600 euros would be something like 1,960 USD or 8,650 ILS. Divide by two, it comes to nearly $1,000 per day. I know Finland is expensive, but that sounds like plenty of money to me.

Not to the workers’ union, though. They want more:

Paivi Turtiainen, a spokeswoman for Paperiliitto, the paper-workers’ union, said: “We want to have more leisure time; money is not the point. The offer of 11 hours is not for every worker, only for those ordered to work Christmas or mid-summer every year. Not for those who do an extra day here or there during those periods.”

Legitimate, this extra pay is not worth to the workers the few hours they lose from the deal. Understandable. So the company should maybe give them a few extra hours, and be done with it, right? Well, one small problem with that:

Employers say they cannot reduce hours any further because Finnish paper workers already have among the lowest working hours in Europe.

Which also makes me think, could it be so low that those 11 hours are full two work days? I’d expect that people who already have lots of leisure will be happy to sacrifice a little of it for plenty of money. But maybe they have so much leisure, that it usually doesn’t feel like they’re working for their salary. In this case extra work will feel more like having to start working, which is a big bother, and not just working a little bit more, which is a smaller bother.

The more amusing part of the union’s rep complaint is that “The offer … is not for every worker, only for those ordered to work…” . Because as a good union person he must believe that workers to which nothing at all happened, and who keep having a vacation exactly like in the previous years, need to be compensated for not having anything done to them. Makes perfect sense. Maybe it’s due to the emotional trauma of seeing some of their co-workers having to work.

All in all, if this news reports is even mildly accurate, I think on this case I’m strongly on the side of the soulless capitalist machine, and encourage them to exploit these poor workers for all they’re worth.

On a final note, the lack of paper of course also have an effect on other industries:

Finland’s berry industry has said it could lose up to 80% of sales this summer because of a lack of packaging to put berries in.

Because everybody knows that it’s totally impossible to put berries in anything except paper. No way that berries could be packaged in plastic, foam, nylon, or anything else of the sort. No, much better to throw away 80% of marketable produce, and blame the lack of paper, than to go and change something, isn’t it?

June 1st, 2005 at 19:39 EET | Categories: Business, Current Affairs | Track comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.