Widerøe on strike, flights grounded

Flight attendants for the Norwegian commuter airline Widerøe went on strike Wednesday, stranding an estimated 11,000 passengers on the eve of the long Ascension Day holiday weekend. All flights by the carrier, which serves many small and often remote communities around the country, were grounded. The strike comes just days after it was announced that [...]

Strike threatens newspapers, TV2

Norway’s national journalists’ union NJ (Norsk Journalistlag) has threatened to call a strike from Saturday after its negotiators failed to reach agreement with the media employers’ organization Mediebedriftenes Landsforening (MBL). TV2 and newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) are among media outlets where journalists and other NJ members may be ordered to walk off the job. The [...]

Overtime mediation averted strike

Norway’s labour federations LO and YS came to terms with national employers’ organization NHO at around 3am on Monday, after three hours of mediation in overtime that ultimately averted a major strike. Their agreement provides modest pay raises across the board, plus a special wage boost for lowest-paid union members. All parts involved claimed they [...]

Strike threat looms Monday

Ferries, flights, other forms of public transport, shipyards and even supplies of beer and soft drinks will be disrupted next week, if nearly 20,000 members of various unions around Norway are called out on strike. Bus service in the Oslo area, for example, will be halted from early Monday if mediation fails over the weekend. [...]

Union threatens to expand strike by airport personnel

A strike that began at the airport in Brønnøysund in northern Norway earlier this month will spread to other airports around the region if pay demands made to the company supplying ground services aren’t met, threatened the union representing ground personnel at the airport. The conflict is between union LFF (Luftfartens funksjonærforbund) and the local [...]

‘Challenging’ pay negotiations begin

Wage negotiations between Norway’s confederation of trade unions LO and the national employers’ organization NHO were getting underway this week, with LO leader Roar Flåthen saying that pay issues were “especially challenging” this year. Norway’s strong economy versus budget and debt crises abroad make it harder for the unions to demand big raises. On the [...]

Air traffic controllers’ leader resigns under pressure

The controversial leader of Norway’s air traffic controllers, Åge Røde, has decided to resign as his colleagues’ representative, after state aviation agency Avinor went to court to get him fired. Avinor has claimed that Røde was behind the work slowdowns last summer that delayed or cancelled flights, stranded many passengers and led to huge losses [...]

Strike averted at Norwegian Air

A late-night pact reached at around 2am on Wednesday headed off a threatened strike by flight attendants at low-fare carrier Norwegian Air. It would have been the first strike in Norwegian’s 10-year history, but other conflicts loom. Negotiators for the flight attendants and the airline came to terms after Norwegian offered guarantees to preserve permanent [...]

Labour youth unhappy that Labour minister halted nursing home strike

Labour Minister Hanne Bjurstrøm intervened on Wednesday in an ongoing strike by workers at privately run nursing homes. She claimed the strike was imperiling the health and lives of nursing home residents, but her own party’s youth group objected. Bjurstrøm’s decision to halt the month-long strike, by workers demanding the same, higher pension benefits as [...]

New commission to evaluate collective bargaining

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, still shaken by a wave of strikes by public sector workers, has appointed a new commission to examine how pay levels are set. Stoltenberg confirmed that he wants a commission to study the wage process in Norway following a meeting Tuesday morning with representatives of all those involved. The meeting was [...]

Airlines demand compensation for air traffic control delays

Several airlines serving Norwegian airports are collectively demanding NOK 100 million in compensation from state aviation authority Avinor. They claim they lost heavily when they suffered delays and cancellations because of a lack of air traffic controllers on the job last summer. Statistics from the European agency Eurocontrol showed that Oslo’s main airport at Gardermoen [...]

Lack of control over air traffic control

There’s no end in sight to the delays at Norwegian airports that have frustrated airlines and passengers alike all summer. Airlines are demanding reforms within air traffic control systems both in Norway and elsewhere in Europe, while the air traffic controllers complain of excessive overtime needed to offset personnel shortages. Avinor, the state aviation authority [...]

Airline passengers warned of delays

UPDATED: A lack of air traffic controllers on duty in southern Norway has led to delayed flights in and out of OSL Gardermoen, Oslo’s main airport and widely viewed as the gateway to Norway. Staffing shortages forced some airports to close at various points earlier this week, and new delays loom this weekend. Avinor is [...]

Government keeps oil and gas flowing

Labour Minister Hanne Bjurstrøm claims she had little choice but to step in during the night and head off an oil industry lock-out that would have halted the country’s offshore oil and gas production. Bjurstrøm ordered compulsory arbitration to end a labour conflict over pension benefits that already had disrupted production for more than two [...]

Lock-out loomed at Norwegian rigs

Norway’s oil and gas production faced shutdown this week, if oil industry officials went through with their threat to lock out all workers from all oil rigs on the Norwegian continental shelf from midnight Monday. New negotiations over the weekend failed to resolve a conflict over rights to early retirement. (See latest developments in the [...]

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