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STRIKES

Travellers face queues at Norway’s border control as public sector strike rolls on

While the government halted the strike in the national security sector over the weekend, the broader public sector strike – affecting police, air travel, and higher education – intensified on Monday.

Published: 3 June 2024 11:02 CEST
Airport
Travellers at major Norwegian airport should anticipate significant delays at border control due to a reduction in staff affecting border control. Photo by Anete Lūsiņa on Unsplash

Starting Monday, travellers at Oslo Airport should anticipate significant delays at border control due to a substantial reduction in staff affecting border control.

According to the Eastern Police District, both arriving and departing passengers should prepare for wait times of up to 2-3 hours.

READ MORE: Why Norway’s public sector strike is likely to drag on

Travellers leaving the Schengen area are advised to arrive well in advance.

A similar situation could also unfold at Bergen Airport Flesland, according to local newspaper Bergens Tidende (BT).

Strike escalation

The public sector strike in Norway intensified on Monday.

An additional 1,736 Confederation of Unions for Professionals (Unio) union members joined, bringing the total on the Unio side to 3,300 strikers.

This escalation will heavily impact police services, air travel, and higher education across Norway.

Nearly 300 university employees in Oslo and Akershus are on strike, causing multiple exam postponements at the University of Oslo (UiO), the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), and Oslo Met, according to the newspaper Khrono.

National security sector strike halted by Labour Minister Brenna

Norway’s Labour Minister Tonje Brenna has halted the strike in the national security sector by the Federation of Norwegian Professional Associations (Akademikerne) due to national security concerns.

The National Security Authority (NSM) warned that it could not maintain essential services if the strike continued.

“Given the serious situation reported by the NSM, I have no other choice but to stop the strike,” Brenna said.

The Akademikerne union, which had planned extensive strikes affecting over half of the NSM’s workforce, is now barred from continuing the action.

Before the Labour Minister intervened to halt the national security sector strike, Akademikerne was expected to have over 2,250 additional strikers on Monday. However, following Minister Brenna’s decision, the exact number is now uncertain.

How (and why) the strike started

The public sector strike occurred because unionised workers failed to agree on a collective bargaining deal with the state.

This year’s talks concern the entire collective bargaining agreement, not just wages. Four unions have been locked in talks with the government.

READ MORE: How Norway’s public sector strike will affect you

The branch of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), which represents state employees, and the Confederation of Vocational Unions (YS) managed to agree on a deal with the state.

However, the talks between the state, the Federation of Norwegian Professional Associations and the Confederation of Unions for Professionals broke down.

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STRIKES

Strike among Norway’s aircraft technicians called off

There will be no strike among aircraft technicians on Friday and during the weekend, as negotiations between employee and employer representatives have been successfully concluded.

Published: 21 June 2024 09:30 CEST
Strike among Norway's aircraft technicians called off

Roughly 1.8 million expected Norwegian weekend travellers can breathe a sigh of relief – the potential strike by aircraft technicians has been called off, with the Norwegian Aviation Technician Organisation (NFO) and NHO Luftfart reaching an agreement.

National mediator Mats Wilhelm Ruland announced the successful resolution of the negotiations, calling it “one of the most challenging mediations” this year.

“This is one of the most difficult mediations we have had this year. It is extra good to reach the finish line in such a dispute,” Ruland said, according to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).

Both parties expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the talks.

The agreement, confirmed by both employee and employer representatives, was reached after the initial deadline expired at midnight, with negotiations extending well into the early hours of Friday.

Background

The negotiations had broken down in May, and a failure to reach an agreement would have led to a strike starting Friday morning, potentially disrupting travel for many as the summer holidays for school pupils begin this weekend.

Avinor reported that up to 1.8 million travellers are expected to pass through Norway’s four largest airports in the next two weeks.

A strike would have impacted maintenance and repairs for airlines such as SAS, Norwegian, and Widerøe.

Erik Lahnstein, the head of NHO Luftfart, expressed relief at avoiding a strike.

“We are very happy that we avoided a strike and that thousands of passengers are not affected by aviation disruption now that we are heading into the summer holidays,” he said.

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