Nearly 700 train departures in southeastern Norway will be cancelled after an additional 26 locomotive engineers were called out on strike from Monday morning. Lines through Oslo and especially between Asker and Kongsvinger will be hit hardest.
Thousands of commuters and other train passengers had to find another mode of transport on Monday, or work from home as the strike spread. Several conductors based in Hamar and Lillehammer were also temporarily laid off by the state-owned train operator Vy. They had settled their own strike last month, but now the trains they were working on are standing still.
The conflict, which began on September 18, is mostly over pay issues and work schedules. There hasn’t been any contact between Vy’s employer organization Spekter and the locomotive engineers’ labour federation (Norsk Lokførerforbund, NLF), nor over the weekend as NLF had hoped after warning of the strike expansion last week.
There are no plans for any new meetings between the two either. That means passengers on the line already hit hardest, between Drammen and Lillehammer, face more transport problems. More than six of its 10 daily departures had already been cancelled.
One of the main problems for the striking engineers may be that the union only pulled 46 of its 1,000 members off the job when the strike began. While there were disruptions, editorialized newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN), the strike didn’t create consequences bad enough to force Spekter and Vy back to the bargaining table.
The newspaper has also pointed out that the engineers’ pay demands are “totally unrealistic” since they already earn nearly NOK 1 million (USD 100,000) a year, work around 32.5 hours per week and can have influence over their work schedules a year in advance. DN also pointed to a lack of public sympathy from irritated commuters and other passengers in an editorial last week that ran just before NLF warned of the strike expansion.
NLF has claimed, meanwhile, that it has a lot of public support and sympathy. NLF leaders also remain upset that engineers working on the Airport Express Train (Flytoget) between Oslo’s main airport at Gardermoen and Drammen earn more than its members on local lines, and want to even out the pay differences before Vy takes over Flytoget after a controversial government decision to merge the two.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
