Forest Industry Fears Double-Strike Damage
Paper production may have to cease if the rolls can't be transported from factories.
Image: YLE
Finland's forest industry warns that the combination of the transport strike plus the threatened dock workers' strike could stall the industry and result in temporary plant closures.
For example, UPM Kymmene's paper processing plant in Lappeenranta in the south-east has been working nonstop, and its warehouses are filling up with orders. If the massive rolls of paper can't be transported to the ports, and from the ports to the customer, then the backlog could force the plant to temporarily shut down.
UPM's other plants and those of its competitors face the same problem.
Nonetheless, the situation is not dire, as small transport companies and self-employed truckers are not striking. And if the paper rolls are stranded in Finland, customers' orders can, in many cases, be filled from other factories around Europe.
Truckers Downplay Export Drama
Finnish Transport and Logistics SKAL, a transport industry group, says the transport strike's threat to the forest industry has been exaggerated.
"Only around thirty or forty transport companies are involved in the labour dispute, and their actions are not going to bring Finland to a standstill," says SKAL director Iiro Lehtonen.
Lehtonen notes that the ports are much more crucial to the forest industry's exports. He predicts that factories will have to cease production if the dock workers go on strike on Thursday.
YLE