Also on Monday morning, representatives of employers and the Finnish Transport Workers' Union met with State Mediator Juhani Salonius. The heads of the blue-collar labour confederation SAK, Lauri Ihalainen, and the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK), Seppo Riski, also took part.
Employers said the strike is illegal and refused to negotiate while it was going on. The EK condemned the action, saying that surprise strikes cause great losses for Finnish export industries and hurt the nation's reputation.
All cargo-handling work in Finnish ports was at a standstill over the weekend. The strike by stevedores, which began on Thursday, forced the closure of many paper mills, which do not have space for storing paper. The forest products companies UPM, Stora Enso and M-Real have all begun restarting closed mills.
PM: Collective Bargaining Threatened
Over the weekend, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen called on dock workers to end their wildcat strike. He said it was unreasonable that the rest of society had to suffer the consequences of illegal industrial actions. He also warned that the situation could have repercussions on the next round of collective bargaining.
The main sticking point in the conflict is the extensive use of part time and short term employees in Finnish harbours. The union has called for giving permanent positions to many of them.
The local stoppages were sparked by union anger at the use of non-union employees during the overtime ban enacted by AKT to speed up the talks.