Image: Jouni Immonen / Yle

The Post and Logistics Union PAU announced on Sunday that it would be extending planned strike action by two weeks. The union said that a strike due to begin on Monday and end on 24 November, will now run until 8 December if a new collective bargaining agreement is not settled.

PAU said that it announced the additional two-week work stoppage in a bid to speed up negotiations with the employer, national mail carrier Posti. Employer and employee representatives have reached gridlock over terms and conditions of work.

The strike extension will affect mail carriers as well as employees working in mail sorting, deliveries and others working in clerical and sales positions across the country – a total of 10,000 personnel. The strike will not affect early-morning newspaper deliveries.

The first phase of the strike that was previously announced will involve 9,000 workers and will begin at 6am on Monday. It will cause chronic delays in letter and parcel deliveries and sympathy strikes by other industries could exacerbate the impact of the industrial action.

Employee representatives are particularly irked by Posti’s plans to transfer 700 packaging and e-commerce workers to a different collective bargaining agreement.

These workers would no longer be covered by a collective agreement for the communications and logistics sector and would instead fall under an agreement brokered by the Media Union and the Federation of Finnish Industries.

Negotiations between the parties will resume on Wednesday under the leadership of the state conciliator.