The parties in the Finnish postal dispute did not reach an agreement on Sunday evening. Sympathy strikes are now expected, which will affect ferry traffic and Finnair's flights.
A bitter dispute over the terms for Finnish postal workers will cause major problems for ferry traffic between Sweden and Finland, Helsinki residents and the airline Finnair on Monday.
Postal workers have been on strike since November 11th in protest against the conditions for 700 parcel handlers and a new collective agreement for 10,000 postal workers. Mediators worked all weekend to reach an agreement that both sides in the Finnish postal conflict could accept.
But after several hours of negotiations on Sunday, the announcement came that the postal workers' union Pau had rejected the mediators' offer. Now there will be a new extended strike for 10,000 postal workers.
At the same time, the conflict is escalating as transport and maritime unions go on sympathy strikes from Monday 25 November. Among other things, Helsinki bus drivers are going on strike and Finnair's flights will be affected as ground staff and customer service at Vantaa-Helsinki Airport strike.
Finnair already cancelled 26 departures on Sunday and Monday morning. Around 1,000 passengers are affected by the cancellations, including two flights from Helsinki to Hong Kong and Beijing respectively, as well as Stockholm-Helsinki.
Finnair is now cancelling further flights. The company has a total of 377 planned flights on Monday with 35,000 travellers.
The company is cancelling a further 250 flights on Monday and believes it will be able to complete approximately 120, according to a press release. Approximately 20,000 travellers are affected.
Flights to and from the Swedish airports Arlanda, Bromma, Umeå and Landvetter are affected.
”Finnair has cancelled five departures from Arlanda and four arrivals to Arlanda tomorrow, and two arrivals and two departures at Landvetter,” says Åsa Öhman, press officer at Swedavia, to TT on Sunday evening.
Regarding Bromma, five departures and five arrivals have been cancelled, and at Umeå Airport, there is one of each.
Furthermore, Swedish travellers who travel to Finland by other means to continue their journey on Finnair's many flights to Asia are affected.
Ferry and freight traffic across the Baltic Sea is also affected as the Finnish Seamen's Union observes a sympathy strike. All ships flying the Finnish flag will remain in port.
”It's a shame for us and our passengers, as we are not a party to the conflict,” says Hans Friberg, Chief Operating Officer at the shipping company Tallink Silja.
Two of the shipping company's vessels, Silja Serenade and Baltic Princess, get stuck in Helsinki and Turku respectively. Traffic to Riga and Tallinn is not affected by the conflict.
”We hope that the parties resolve this,” says Hans Friberg at Tallink Silja.
Viking Line announces that five of the shipping company's vessels are affected. Rosella will remain in Mariehamn harbour from Sunday evening. On Monday morning, Mariella will stay at the quay in Helsinki harbour and Amorella in Turku harbour.
On Monday evening, Viking Grace will remain in Turku, while on Tuesday morning, Gabriella will be stuck in Helsinki.
Source: TT-di.se
