The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Oslo Press Division

Norway Daily No. 84/00

Date: 3 May 2000

UNIONS REFUSE TO DEFINE DEMANDS (Dagsavisen)

The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) refuses to state precisely what it wants the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO) to improve on in its next offer. One of the reasons for the LO’s caution may be that it is anxious to avoid another rejection by union members due to expectations of larger pay hikes or earlier implementation of the fifth vacation week. The LO secretariat will decide tomorrow whether to expand the strike next Tuesday to include other worker groups in addition to the 84,600 who have already walked off the job.

MONEY IS THE ANSWER (Aftenposten)

The general public view seems clear: the strike starting today is not likely to end until wages go up. According to a survey taken by Opinion yesterday for Aftenposten, higher pay is chiefly what it will take to pave the way for an agreement. 54 per cent feel it was proper to reject the negotiated settlement proposal.

UNION LEADER BELIEVES STRIKE WILL BE SHORT (Dagbladet)

The national strike will lead to thousands of layoffs, and soon over 200,000 Norwegians are likely to be idled. Per Østvold, head of the Norwegian Union of Transport Workers, believes that if the LO escalates the strike to include additional worker groups, the strike will soon be over. Escalation will bring us that much closer to a resolution of the conflict, says Mr. Østvold.

UNION LEADERS EXCUSED FROM RESPONSIBILITY (Aftenposten)

When asked what caused the strike, leading worker representatives in the LO point to executive greed. However, they refuse to criticize their own leaders, who, as board members in many corporations, have had a hand in giving fat pay raises to corporate executives. The worker representatives do not seem to feel this damages the LO’s credibility.

FOSS DECLARES CANDIDACY (Verdens Gang)

With two years to go until Conservative Party chairman Jan Petersen steps down, and just a few days before his re-election, Per-Kristian Foss has declared his own candidacy for the party chairmanship. For the first time, Mr. Foss has openly admitted that he was actually prepared to take over at the upcoming national convention in Bergen this weekend. Mr. Foss has been—and is still—unwilling to openly contest Mr. Petersen’s leadership of the party this weekend. Mr. Foss is willing to take over only if Mr. Petersen is rejected by the elections committee or if he steps down by his own choice.

PREMIUM ON PHARMACIES (Aftenposten)

New legislation to take effect at the beginning of next year will dissolve apothecaries’ 400-year-old exclusive right to own a pharmacy in Norway. Today’s pharmacy owners have now formed a chain to prepare for the anticipated increase in competition, but this alliance is already showing signs of weakening in the face of a spiralling round of bids from buyers with money to spend. Although the new legislation makes it easier to open new pharmacies, existing establishments are being flooded with tempting offers.

NEW RECORD IN GOLDEN PARACHUTES (Dagens Næringsliv)

Kværner group CEO Kjell E. Almskog’s severance and pension agreement sets a new record. If Mr. Almskog should leave Kværner tomorrow, he would enjoy the benefits of a severance agreement worth NOK 169 million. In order to recruit a person of Mr. Almskog’s calibre, it was necessary to offer a competitive pension package as good or better than the one he already had, says Kværner board chairman Christian Bjelland in defence of the agreement.

WORTH NOTING

• A strike of more than two weeks’ duration will harm large parts of Norwegian industry, says senior researcher Ådne Cappelen of Statistics Norway. (Dagbladet)
• If the strike continues past this weekend, production at a number of the largest auto manufacturing facilities in Europe will come to a halt, says Raufoss ASA group CEO Ottar Henriksen. Two thousand Raufoss employees, most of whom produce parts and components for Europe’s leading car makers, walk off the job today. (Aftenposten)
• The LO’s exemptions committee received 30 requests for strike exemptions from the NHO last night. Rather late, says LO secretary Liv Undheim. (NTB)
• With the security companies which transport money to and from banks grounded by the strike, a number of cash dispensers (ATMs) will empty today. Some branch offices may also quickly run out of cash. (Verdens Gang)
• Midnight tonight is the deadline for mediation efforts in the commercial and service sector. Negotiators on both sides agreed to keep mediation efforts open until there is some development in the conflict between the LO and the NHO. (Dagsavisen)
• Anxious people emptied supermarket bread shelves yesterday, but it was quite unnecessary, for there will be no interruption in bread supplies. (Nationen)
• Restaurant managers from all over southeast Norway spent the night outside the Ringnes brewery in Oslo to secure their stocks of draft beer. Ringnes broke all previous sales records yesterday, with around a million pint bottles running through the factory outlet. (Dagsavisen)
• The Bergen International Festival may be cancelled due to the strike. The organizers have been denied the exemptions they need to conduct the events, so the Festival is likely to be called off for the first time in its 48-year history. (Aftenposten)

TODAY’S COMMENT from Vårt Land

The strike starting today has been billed as a strike against greed. If it is a strike against anything at all, disparity is a more likely candidate. Norwegian society is undergoing far-reaching changes, and many are the reactions against the impact of these changes. What people immediately notice are the high-profile developments — sky-high salaries and golden parachutes for corporate executives who do such a bad job that they have to be fired. Of greater significance, though, is the fact that market forces are determining pay levels in an increasingly large portion of the workplace. The solidarity alternative and moderate wage demands are unknown phenomena in this new sector of the economy. Nonetheless, this strike appears more to be a symptom of a culture of greed than a protest against it. There are widespread reactions against those who grab what they can under the pretence of demanding something for all. And by the way, the tendency to buy up and hoard food is hardly any indication that greed is sidelined and solidarity is the dominant mood. There is nothing to indicate that this strike will help turn the tide in the direction of a society in which individual greed is less acceptable. To the degree that it nudges the LO away from the solidarity alternative, it may be the stroke that topples one of the last remaining bastions.

We would like to advise our readers that news coverage during the strike may suffer due to the absence of a number of newspapers.