HELSINKI (News release) -- Negotiations for the new collective labour agreements between UPM businesses and Paperworkers' Union have continued intensively. On March 16 the union announced a two weeks' extension to the strike at most UPM's Finnish mills, until 16 April 2022, unless new collective labour agreements are reached before that. The Paperworkers' Union's strike at UPM Pulp, UPM Biofuels, UPM Communication Papers, UPM Specialty Papers and UPM Raflatac units in Finland began 1 January 2022. Currently, approximately 200 union members work at the mills in tasks critical to society, such as power plants and water treatment facilities.

"In recent weeks the parties have negotiated primarily in one-on-one negotiations. Despite intense negotiations, agreements have not been reached. Therefore, UPM Pulp's negotiations continue now in the official conciliation process", says Jyrki Hollmén, Vice President, Labour markets at UPM.

UPM will service its customers from its mills outside of Finland to the extent possible. At this point, UPM does not disclose estimates of the economic impacts of the strikes.