Negotiators for Finnish unions and employers agreed Wednesday to end a six-week long dispute that has crippled the Finnish paper industry, dpa said. The talks were mediated by national arbitrator Juhani Salonius, who asked the parties to reconsider a proposal that the board of the paperworkers' union rejected last week. The boards of the Finnish Paperworkers' Union and the Finnish Forest Industries Federation were due Friday to formally approve the deal their respective negotiators agreed on. Details of the deal were not immediately released. Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, who earlier this week met with the parties, said he was very satisfied with the outcome of the talks. The dispute was estimated to have reduced economic growth by 0.5 percentage points. --More 2305 Local Time 2005 GMT
