Norwegian Union Broadens Rig Worker Strike Amid Pay and Pension Spat
July 16 2018 - 6:28AM
Dow Jones News
By Dominic Chopping
A Norwegian union that represents energy sector workers
broadened a strike Monday to include a further 881 oil rig workers
after failing to reach agreement on wages and pensions with a group
representing employers.
Nearly 700 rig workers went on strike last Tuesday after the
Safe union rejected pay and pension proposals from The Norwegian
Shipowners' Association, a trade and employment organization for
Norwegian controlled companies within the shipping and offshore
industry.
A Sunday deadline passed without compromise so under plans
announced last week the additional members have now gone on
strike.
"We're very positive about what we're doing," Safe union
spokesman Roy Aleksandersen told The Wall Street Journal.
He declined to comment on what the next steps would be, but said
there is currently no contact with the Norwegian Shipowners'
Association.
Employees now on strike were working on rigs operated by Archer
Ltd. (ARCHER.OS), Transocean Ltd. (RIG), Songa Offshore, Odfjell
Drilling Ltd. (ODL.OS), and Saipem S.p.A (SPM.MI), among
others.
In a statement last week, chief negotiator for the Norwegian
Shipowners' Association Jakob Korsgaard said "We were not able to
meet Safe's demands in the negotiations."
"These demands, when compared to regulations for other
professions in the offshore sector and society in general, were
simply unreasonable."
He was not immediately available for comment Monday.
Tove Astasund Iversen, spokeswoman at The Norwegian Shipowners'
Association, said Monday there will be an internal meeting this
afternoon to discuss the situation, but there is "no contact
between the parties right now."
Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com; Twitter:
@domchopping @WSJNordics
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 16, 2018 06:13 ET (10:13 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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