HELSINKI: According to the union of Finnish Icebreaker Assistance that “the owners demand a 30 or 40 percent cutback in the earnings of Finnish sailors and threaten to hire foreign labor instead’. This resulted in a strike at ports. The state-controlled Arctia Shipping wants salary levels to be lowered. Arctia Shipping owns eight icebreakers.
The strike affects the ports of Oulu, Kemi and Tornio along the northern shores of the Gulf of Bothnia between Finland and Sweden. At this moment, it would be cheaper to use Swedish icebreakers for assistance on the Finnish side of the Gulf of Bothnia, said Arctia.
The personnel director of the firm David Lindstrom told newspaper Demokraatti that the “greedy attitude of the unions risks the loss of Finnish jobs”.
According to Simo Zitting the chairman of the Finnish Seafarers that” the strike could widen to other sectors of shipping in Finland if agreement is not reached”.
