An all-night negotiating session ended early Thursday with an agreement between Norwegian hotel and restaurant employees and their employers. A threatened strike would have pulled nearly 2,400 workers off the job.
“We’re going to work as normal and everyone is breathing a sigh of relief,” Børge Ånesen of the union representing the hotel and restaurant employees, Fellesforbundet, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). Negotiations resulted in higher wages and two guaranteed weeks of paid paternity leave for male employees.
The strike would, in its first phase, have affected hotels in the Stavanger, Bergen and Trondheim areas, with the threat of spreading to other areas around the country.
Hotel owners, some of whom have feared a downturn in tourists from financially troubled countries in Europe and the US, had resisted the union demands that lead to higher costs. They also, however, were keen to avoid a strike as the late spring- and summer tourist season gets underway.
Views and News staff