Finnish postal strike over but letters may still be delayed

Posti Finland has announced that the collective agreement negotiations between Palta and The Finnish Post and Logistics Union PAU have been concluded and a new agreement has been reached. This means the strike which started on 11 November, is over.

All of Posti’s services are available again and according to the current estimate, most of the shipments delayed by the strike can be delivered by Christmas at the latest. A small number of shipments may be delayed until early January. The estimate will become clearer once the mail delivery work has commenced.

The delivery of the letters, magazines and advertisements stored by Posti during the strike may be delayed by several days, even weeks. These items will be delivered to the recipients together with the shipments mailed after the strike.

Jarmo Ainasoja, Head of Exception Management at Posti said: “We are ready for the Black Friday peak season of online sales as well as the Christmas peak season. We will restore our normal operations as soon as possible. We were able to take care of some of the deliveries during the strike, avoiding a bad congestion. We would like to thank our customers for their faith and patience during the strike. All of our services are now back in use, and new mail can be sent.”

Posti says: “Parcel deliveries went well despite the strike, and most parcels were delivered to customers according to the normal timetable, especially in the bigger cities. In some places, some parcel deliveries may be delayed by a week.

The strike did not affect the early-morning delivery of newspapers, the majority of Posti’s service points (Posti outlets, Posti Parcel Lockers and stamp sales) or warehousing services. The impact on Freight Services was minor.

Work related to safety and health (including local and national delivery of food, foodstuff, groceries, pharmaceuticals and hospital products that are related to health and safety) was also not affected by the strike. To a large degree, it was managed via special arrangements.”

“Christmas is an important and traditional time to remember our friends and family. It is also the most important time of the year for us here at Posti. We are glad that approximately 3,000 seasonal employees are once again working with us in the run-up to Christmas. Altogether, there are roughly 20,000 of us serving our customers during the Christmas period,” says Jarmo Ainasoja.