Finland's nuclear power plants will also join the strike front this week. However, electricity production and nuclear safety will not be compromised, the employees promise.
Loviisa
Loviisa at the gate of the nuclear power plant next to the island of Hästholmen, a freezing wind blows, the snow whips your face and the frost bites exceptionally viciously.
The mix is perfect for the six alert strikers of the Fortum nuclear power plant waiting at the gate.
“The weather is really good strike weather, descriptive. That government is trying to give us a cold ride”, the chief shop steward Arto Mäkinen inform.
He and the rest of the group are dressed in Sähköliito's yellow vests. They have arrived at half past seven on Wednesday morning. Sometimes we go to the cars to warm up.
On Wednesday Finland's strike boom took a completely new turn, as more and more actors joined the strike front.
Sähköliitto has participated in the strike before, but now the nuclear and hydropower plants also joined.
The employees of the Loviisa nuclear power plant will strike on Wednesday, Olkiluoto will join the front on Thursday.
There is a reason for staggered.
“We want to show that we act responsibly. The strike is staggered over three different days. It also shows that this is not intended to bring down the grid or cause an electricity shortage,” says Mäkinen.
He emphasizes that nuclear safety will not suffer from this either. Things are designed so that everything works inside the power plant.
The work will be carried out on Wednesday with the minimum manning required by the authorities. In practice, this means that half of the operating unit's employees are there. Other personnel groups are normally present.
The protection unit, i.e. firefighters and security personnel, is completely excluded from the strike.
If any device should break, it will be repaired. Nothing is risked.
“Above all, this is now a serious warning to the government. Now you should really start listening to us”, declares Arto Mäkinen.
Arto Mäkinen
Strikers say that they are upset with the government, which is trying to make historically large cuts to working conditions and unemployment insurance.
“Things should be finished by agreeing and not dictating. We should be able to negotiate,” says Mäkinen.
According to the strikers, it is strange that the government is taking its case forward with a bull's-eye, and the voice of the wage earners is not being listened to at all.
Why are the government and the business world ready to take such large losses from strikes? we wonder in the group.
In all 550 people work in the entire Loviisa plant.
The Loviisa nuclear power plant produces ten percent of Finland's electricity. It is the oldest nuclear power plant in Finland, the reactors were started in 1977 and 1980.
Among these six strikers are electricians, crane operators, welders – a wide variety of professional groups. Everyone is on the same front.
Arto Mäkinen says that things are quite good for them in Loviisa.
“We have a pretty good employment rate. There have been no layoffs.”
But he admits that the changes planned now will directly affect their bank accounts, sick days and many other things.
Above all, however, we strike here out of solidarity with others. Those with lower incomes and small children at home.
“And at least I'm also thinking about future generations”, Outi Tommiska says.
“That's where our own children come to work.”
The government's plans, for example, regarding the fact that in the future fixed-term contracts will only be chained together, cause the strikers to shudder.
“In the future, young people will no longer be able to catch up on the sidelines of life in the same way. They don't dare to get an apartment and start a family,” Arto Mäkinen thinks.
That's why they're freezing here today. In his multiple layers and wool socks.
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