Such a big walkout in the paper industry has not occurred in Finland since the general strike in 1956. The paper industry is an economically weighty one for the capitalists in Finland from which they derive big export revenues and profits. Estimates are that a two-week strike would set back the gross national product by .3 percent.

The paper workers union is demanding a yearly wage increase of 4.6 percent and a yearly reduction of hours by 24. Other demands include no subcontractors, outsourcing, or layoffs during the life of the contract.

The bosses responded that the demands are way above the national norms of 3.1 percent in wage increases for contracts negotiated in the industry in Finland this year.

But last month two contracts were signed with bigger wage increases. The transport workers union won a 3.5 percent yearly increase, with an additional 1.4 percent this October. The chemical and energy workers union signed a contract with wage increases of 4.1 percent. Both were as a result of strike action by the unions.

A factor in both struggles was solidarity. The dockworkers, who are members of the transport workers union, as well as the Seafarers union, struck in sympathy. Unions in Sweden also pledged to block struck goods.

In this latest strike, the paperworkers union in Sweden has promised to block any work the employers in Finland try to shift to their mills in Sweden. The Finnish Stora Enso, one of the bigger paper companies in the world, has factories at 10 different locations in Sweden, and Metsä-Serla has three.

A big debate over sympathy strikes has opened up in bourgeois politics in Finland, which has spilled over to Sweden, reflecting the nervousness in ruling class circles over the power of the unions when it is used.

Carl-Erik Isacsson is a member of the metalworkers union in Södertälje, Sweden.  
 
 
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