UPM strike extended by two more weeks

The paperworkers strike that has crippled commercial, publishing and labelstock output from the €10bn a year UPM Kymmene mills has been extended by two more weeks, adding to supply worries for the world’s print community.

The company and the union are in mediation to try and break the impasse that has halted production since New Year’s Day, causing 82 continuous days of lost production from one of the world’s biggest papermaking businesses.

The company said, “Negotiations for the new collective labour agreements between UPM businesses and Paperworkers’ Union have continued intensively”, but the union said the strike will continue, “until the outcome of the negotiations has been reached”.

The paperworkers union is being supported by the electricians union and the transport workers union in the strike, which has now been extended five times.

Tony Bertrand, marketing manager of UPM distributor Ball & Doggett said the strike was “compounding” tight supply, but said that the company was well placed to maintain supply to Australian and New Zealand print businesses, despite the strike, war in the Ukraine, and the ongoing shipping crisis.