Tallink, the Estonian shipping group, filed a lawsuit in a Finnish court against local trade unions. Reports published in the media claim that seafarers' trade unions from Finland, Sweden and Germany are threatening Tallink with a boycott as the shipper is not willing to hold negotiations on its crews' work contracts with the unions. In a joint statement last week Finnish, Estonian, Swedish and German unions demanded that Tallink start negotiations on the contracts for the crews of the three Superfast class ferries that it recently bought from a Greek shipping group, as well as of the Fantaasia ferry shifted to the Riga-Stockholm route. The International Transport Workers' Federation, to which the unions belong, are demanding that labor regulations approved by the unions of all the countries concerned must apply to ships plying between the ports of different countries.
Lietuvos Telekomas, the dominant landline operator, finalized procedures for changing its name to Teo LT. The company has been issued a new registration certificate, and authorities have registered relevant amendments to the Articles of Association. The Website of the company will be changed www.teo.lt from www.telecom.lt. CEO Arunas Siksta explained that the letter "t" in the corporate name was a reference to telecommunications, "e" - to enthusiasm, and "o" - to optimality. The new name was easy to pronounce and remember, he added. The company's shareholders voted to rename the company Teo LT at the April 24 meeting.
