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Massive postal worker strike to start as negotiations fail

Xinhua, November 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Postal workers of Finland is set to stage a massive nationwide strike, as labor bargaining talks to resolve a dispute over new conditions of work broke down on Wednesday, Finnish national broadcaster Yle reported.

The strike will start on Thursday afternoon first in the capital of Helsinki, and then spread to other places around Finland. It may last for two weeks, said Posti Group, the state-owned post service provider.

The Finnish Postal and Logistics Union PAU, organizer of the strike, has complained that the post offices use more and more temporary workers from outside instead of Posti Group's own employees.

The collective negotiations over the labor dispute started earlier in November, but ended on Wednesday without a settlement.

Minna Helle, national labor conciliator, told Yle that the union and the employer remained far apart on issues including pay, working hours and protections for existing workers.

Helle said that she will meet the two sides again next Monday.

Earlier on Wednesday, Posti Group announced that it would not use temporary workers from outside during the strike.

The transport workers union of Finland AKT has threatened to support the postal worker strike, if temporary labor force was used during the dispute.

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila has participated in the talks. Sipila has said that he supports the company's attempts to cut costs.

According to Posti Group, thousands of postal workers will take part in the strike, which may seriously affect the mail deliveries across the country in the coming days.

Newspaper deliveries will stop immediately when the strike starts. Mails and newspapers will remain undelivered for days or even a week in many areas.

In addition, essential deliveries, such as medicines, daycare centers' meals, elderly peoples' food deliveries and blood service consignments will also be affected.

In the beginning of November, hundreds of Postal workers of Finland staged strikes in several places to protest against Posti Group's move to outsource its services and force its staff members to train temporary workers. Endit