The Tolkise sawmill in Finland fell silent in December 2008 when operator Stora Enso reacted to the financial crisis and decided to suspend production for one year. 50 of the mill's 70 workers were laid off; four were retained to look after the machinery and buildings; and the remaining workers decided to retire.|
Working and work conditions are as much of an issue in the Nordic countries during the economic and financial crisis as they are in Estonia. Unemployment has risen everywhere, people are much more worried about their jobs now than they were a year ago, and the amount they are getting paid for difficult work is not always enough to keep the coffers brimming over. |
Workers with no work and no pay represent a challenge to the welfare society
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Hopes that the sounds of sawing will fill Tolkise again within a few months are slim. "We'll see what spring brings," says Raimo Nenonen, who has worked at the mill since 1978, in an interview with the new online magazine Arbeidsliv i Norden (Working Life in the Nordic Countries). 59-year-old Nenonen spends most of his days at home with his cat Murre. The majority of the household income is now being earned by his partner; the timber worker himself receives unemployment benefits. |