ICEM UPDATE

No. 40/2000, 5 May 2000

The following is from the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM):

NORWEGIAN STRIKE TO SPREAD

Norway's nationwide strike will spread to more industries next Tuesday, union leaders announced at a press conference in Oslo this morning.

102,119 workers will be on strike across the private sector from 6.00 a.m. local time on 9 May. These include the 84,600 union members who have been out since 3 May - already more than a third of the country's private sector union membership.

Among the new strikers next Tuesday will be 5,200 pulp and paper workers organised by the general union Fellesforbundet. At the global level, Fellesforbundet is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

Sectors already on strike in Norway include asphalt, cement, explosives, rubber products, paints, plastics and a range of ancillary and catering functions in the oil and gas industries (details in ICEM UPDATE 37/2000). Electricity and electrochemical workers could join in later this month.

The strike follows a membership vote to reject a mediated settlement covering much of the private sector.

"It is true that we have national-level collective agreements and that we have a tradition of bringing out whole sectors of coverage during a dispute," commented Fellesforbundet President Kjell Bjorndalen at today's press conference. "We call out everything or nothing."

No new offer has so far been received from the employers, Yngve Hagensen told the journalists. He is President of the national trade union federation LO, which is coordinating the action. "We're going to conduct a big, solid strike without hitting 'third parties' too hard," Hagensen added. "We'll do it in such a way that it will be first and foremost the companies, the owners, who will feel it."

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