Norway - Private sector union brakes off negotiations - March 23, 2010

On 22 March, Fellesforbundet, the largest private sector union, broke off negotiations in the metal sector with the employers’ federation Norsk Industri. The result of negotiations in the metal sector, together with those in the textiles and clothing sector, the packaging sector and a couple of smaller sectors will be decisive for bargaining outcomes throughout the country. After more than a week of negotiations, Fellesforbundet President Arve Bakke gave up concluding collective bargaining without mediation. “We have a responsibility towards every low paid worker in Norway and the offer made by Norsk Industri does not come close to shouldering this responsibility. There was also no substantial move on other important questions like securing normal working hours and keeping guaranty wages for all low paid workers in industry. Also there was no move on our demands for fairer treatment of foreign workers and rotation schedules for workers far away from home”, Bakke said.

English: message of EUCOBAN network of EMF / EFFAT / ETUF-TCL / EMCEF

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.