Leo Suomaa has asked the parties to state their position on the proposal by 10am EET (8am BST) on 14 April 2022.

In the meantime, Suomaa will continue the conciliation with the union and UPM’s other businesses. Paperiliitto has also now agreed that the businesses can all run the negotiations parallel instead of having them one by one.

“I am pleased that the negotiations have reached a point where the conciliator has seen it possible to submit a proposal for a settlement,” said Juha Kääriäinen, vice president of Finland Pulp Operations at UPM Pulp, and its chief negotiator.

“I am hopeful that the agreement will be reached, and I hope we get to start the mills as soon as possible.”

The strike has now lasted for over 80 days and the two sides have been negotiating for the past few weeks, meeting in conciliation last week.

At the same point, Paperiliitto announced a ten day extension to the strike at most of UPM’s Finnish mills, until 16 April, unless new collective labour agreements are reached before that.

The ongoing strike applies to all work covered by the expired paper industry collective agreement, except for work that, according to a decision issued by the Helsinki District Court on 21 January, could endanger life, health, or the environment.

Industry bodies across the European commercial printing and label printing industries have expressed deep concern about the damaging knock-on impact of the strike.