Finland Dock Strike Enters Eighth Day

Dock union officials and port employers in Finland resumed contract negotiations Thursday after a long day of talks failed to end a week-long national stevedore strike.

The end of talks March 10 sent the walkout into its eighth day, with employers resisting union demands that laid-off dockers receive compensation equivalent to one year’s salary.

The strike by around 3,400 stevedores, which began March 4, has cut off the export-oriented Nordic nation from the global trading system and forced paper producers to close mill as they run out of warehouse space.

The Confederation of Finnish Industries says the strike is costing exporters nearly $140 million a day in lost sales and threatening the nascent recovery from the country’s deepest recession since it won independence from Russia in 1917.