Seafarers union calls strike on small-island ferry routes

The Estonian Seafarers’ Union has announced a strike on all passenger ferries operated by Kihnu Veeteed, starting Friday, September 18, ERR reported.

The strike will continue until an agreement is reached or the strike leader orders it to end. It will affect the Kihnu Virve ferry on the Munalaid to Kihnu and Munalaid to Manilaid routes, the Ormsö ferry between Rohuküla and Sviby, the Soela ferry between Sõru and Triigi, and the Koidula ferry between Laaksaare and Piirissaare.

The union said Kihnu Veeteed had not been prepared to negotiate its repeated proposals for a collective agreement in a substantive and reasoned manner or to conclude such an agreement, Lääne Elu reported.

Instead, the ferry operator had signed an agreement with the recently established West Estonia Seafarers’ Union, which represents only six employees at the company, according to the report. Collective negotiations have not produced an agreement, and the labour peace has broken down.

“It is difficult to understand exactly what the problem is,” Kihnu Veeteed manager Jaak Kaabel told Lääne Elu. He said the company had raised employees’ salaries by 12 to 20 percent, depending on their position, because pay had been one of the causes of the long-running labour dispute.

“A pay rise is very welcome, but it is a unilateral decision by the employer,” EMSA chairman Jüri Lember said. He added that the actual increase was smaller because bonuses had been reduced at the same time.

Lember said that 52 percent of Kihnu Veeteed’s crew members belonged to EMSA.

Vormsi rural municipality mayor Tanel Viks reacted angrily to the strike plan, calling EMSA’s actions extortion. “This is disgraceful,” Viks told Lääne Elu.