The trade union for the public service worker's sector, JHL, said it plans to join a strike in support of ongoing negotiations in the private social services and education sectors, and will bring the nation's cargo transport to a near-halt next Wednesday.
The strike will stop work at the railway yard at both Kouvola and the hub port of Hamina-Kotka.
Workers at Helsinki’s Ilmala railway depot will also take part in the strike.
JHL has said the strike will last 24 hours from the beginning of Wednesday.
”Work will not stop entirely, as passenger transport will still go ahead as per usual. The industrial action of workers in Ilmala may cause some disruptions to trains but we cannot foresee what disruptions those might be,” JHL’s chairman of railway professionals Teppo Järnstedt said. An estimated few hundred workers are expected to take part in the action.
The aim of the support strike is to speed up ongoing contract negotiations in the private social services sector, the university and private education industry as well as vocational adult education centres. The private social services sector unions represents workers in private daycare institutions.
According to JHL, the strike will go ahead as planned unless a deal is struck in the negotiations before Wednesday.
”JHL is the union of many industries. Now the male-dominant railway industry is supporting low-pay and women-dominated sectors” described JHL chairman Päivi Laine-Niemi.
