By Essi Lehto

HELSINKI, (Reuters) – More than 50,000 Finnish workers will strike January 1st in a wage dispute. This could lead to the closure of technology and mining plants, according to three labor unions.

Finnish industry employers claim higher wages are a threat to competitiveness. Unions, however, fear that the present pay package will lead to lower living standards for their employees.

Operation at more than 200 Finnish companies, including Nokia (NYSE), Kone and Metso(OTC:), Outotec (OTC:), Outokumpu and Sandvik as well as the Swedish firms SSAB and Swiss ABB would be affected by the 10-day strike that was scheduled to begin Jan. 14.

On Thursday, the office of the conciliator announced that the unions would meet with Finland’s National Conciliator to seek a solution to wage hikes in the new collective Labour Agreement.

UPM has announced a strike that will shut down UPM’s Finnish plant for the next three weeks, beginning January 1. This is after workers protested against UPM rejecting their demands for a collective labor agreement.

Finnish Forest Industries, a federation that represents forestry businesses, announced it was quitting collective bargaining in October 2020 and would replace industry-wide deals with firms that negotiate with their staff directly.

Stora Enso, UPM competitor (OTC) has signed collective agreements specific to her company in October