Finnish postal negotiations hamper domestic and international mail

There has been no breakthrough in postal negotiations at Posti, the Finnish government owned postal services company. Strike action began on 11 November.

The reason for the strike is the Posti’s decision to force some 700 Posti employees into another collective agreement.

The Finnish Post and Logistics Union PAU says it is “determined to resist this move claiming that this would mean a serious cut in pay for their members.”

Posti said: “The collective bargaining that continued over the weekend did not yet reach agreement between the negotiating parties. The PAU has announced that the strike will continue. Estimates of the impact of strikes and strikes on mail delivery are updated daily.

“Despite the strike, packages have gone smoothly in most parts of the country. According to current estimates, most packages will be delivered to customers on time. Unfortunately, with the strike continuing in a small number of packages, delays can be up to a week. Freight services operate normally. Some of the printed mail has also been sorted and distributed, says Jarmo Ainasoja, Director of Emergency Services at the Post.

“At the moment, we estimate that Christmas packages will run within the promised time”

In addition to PAU’s strike, some of the domestic traffic labour unions have issued an advance notification regarding sympathy strikes. If realised, the measures of support of the Finnish Aviation Union (IAU) will apply to the handling of mail at airports.

normally open and operational services are:

– Newspaper distribution
– Warehouse services
– Freight services
– Partial safety and health work (including food, food, food bag, medicine, hospital and other similar local and national health and safety broadcasts) The

PAU has excluded safety and health work from the strike.

“The Post requires the PAU to shoulder its promised responsibility and to help ensure the normal flow of these very important shipments,” Ainasoja says.

Delays caused by strikes and strikes or extraordinary opening hours:

– Most packages go normal, but a small amount is delayed. A small portion of the packets can be routed to an alternative pick-up point, as close as possible to the original pick-up point.
– Delays in food logistics shipments (breweries and food industry).
– Letters (delay even weeks)
– Magazines (delay even weeks)
– Direct Marketing or commercials (delay even weeks)
– made in paper form for postal control commissions (change of address, an interrupt distribution, time-limited Forwarding) (delay even weeks

“We would like to thank our customers for their patience. We are very sorry about the uncertainty and disruptions caused by the strikes. However, the majority of our parcel deliveries from neighboring areas, such as Sweden, can be delivered quickly, subject to only minor delays. We aim to restore the normal delivery rhythm immediately after the end of the strike and, therefore, Christmas parcels should be delivered on time,” explains Jarmo Ainasoja, Head of Exception Management, Posti.