Trade Union JHL’s support to the Industrial Union continues: a new handling blockade starting from 3 February

JHL is going to support the Industrial Union’s collective agreement negotiations with a second handling blockade. The final day of the new blockade is Saturday 8 February, unless the negotiations reach a result before that.

The collective agreement negotiations of the Industrial Union remain deadlocked and have not produced a result that the employees could accept.

Trade Union JHL continues to support the collective agreement negotiations of the Industrial Union and is going to start a new handling blockade to help speed up the negotiations.

The President of the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL, Håkan Ekström, thanks those JHL members who have already participated supportive action.

– The members are the trade union. We can only defend the interest of employees when we do it together. The incessant austerity policy of the Government and the continuing inflation are a real problem for employees. There is clearly a need for pay rises in this negotiation round as well, Ekström says.

A handling blockade is lawful industrial action. The blockade concerns agreement sectors for which the Industrial Union has issued a strike warning. JHL’s industrial action will start on Monday 3 February 2025 and end on Saturday 8 February 2025, unless a result is reached in the negotiations before that.

This industrial action will affect cargo handling for example in ports and rail transport. Employees will not load or unload the products of companies that are subject to the industrial action. Transport sector employees may refuse to transport the goods of these companies.

Besides Trade Union JHL, also the Finnish Transport Workers’ Union AKT, the Finnish Seafarers’ Union, Service Union United PAM, the Finnish Construction Trade Union, and the Finnish Electrical Workers´ Union have organised supportive action.  

More information: Håkan Ekström, President of JHL, 040 828 286 

This article was updated on 31 January 2025: Term “handling embargo” has been replaced with “handling blockade”