It has been quiet at Aker Solutions in Stord this week. 1,900 workers have been on strike since Monday, but on Friday morning life was bustling again at the shipyard. – I was surprised yesterday. I was sitting in the office when a guy came and said “the strike is over”. And I just “Huh?” It went a bit quickly, says Finn Madssen jr. who is deputy leader of the Aker Solutions Stord Federation. – You didn’t expect that? – I had expected that we would hold out a little longer. I thought maybe we would be able to push the krone up a little more, he says. The agreement between LO and NHO which ended the strike includes a wage increase of a total of 5.2 per cent, and a low wage supplement which has increased to three kroner an hour. For those without local bargaining rights, it will increase to four kroner an hour. Madssen emphasizes that he is nevertheless satisfied with the result. – There are many people who do not have local bargaining rights, and they want to get a little more. They are the ones we actually fought for. – No richer from this settlement Whether the settlement leads to real wage growth or not, it is difficult to know until you know how the economy develops this year. news’s economic commentator Cecilie Langum Becker still does not think that most Norwegians will get that much more to deal with. – We’re not going to get that much richer from this wage settlement, but maybe we can get to a level where we don’t lose too much because prices have risen so much in recent years, says Langum Becker. While NHO chief Ole Erik Almlid called the strike unnecessary, LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik was satisfied with the settlement. – For us, this is a historically good result. It has never happened in recent times that we have managed to achieve a higher krone supplement than we have done now, said the LO leader at a press conference on Thursday evening. More pay – higher interest? – I thought it might be a long strike, but luckily it wasn’t, says Frank Hårklau. The roller driver works at Veidekke’s asphalt plant in Førde, and was one of the around 25,000 workers organized in LO and YS who went on strike from Monday to Thursday this week. – It has been long days and a little too much coffee, says Hårklau. – It’s probably a good settlement, but I’m afraid that the rent will rise now. Then I might be the same distance, says Hårklau. And the fear that increased purchasing power in the population may lead to further interest rate increases may be real. Several economists pointed this out when the strike was a fact. Several times this week, DNB Markets has mentioned this in its morning reports. They write, among other things, that the conflict in this year’s wage statement “increases the likelihood that wage growth may be higher than Norges Bank has assumed”. Frank Hårklau at Veidekke in Førde says there have been long days with lots of coffee. Photo: Raymond Lidal / news – Everything depends on the local supplement For many of the workers who have returned after the strike, something is still at stake. Local supplements will still be negotiated in several places. It can give even more sounding coin in the coffers. – We still have high expectations for the local negotiations as well, says Finn Madssen jr. at Stord. He works at a shipyard with an order backlog of several tens of billions of kroner. Right now they are in the rush to complete Equinor’s ship “Johan Castberg” – a giant ship with space to store 1.1 million barrels of oil. That there is a high level of activity contributes to employees expecting good local additions at the top of the central negotiations. They also hope for good local negotiations at Nordfjord Kjøtt in Loen. – Everything depends on what I get in the local salary supplement. If we want to increase our purchasing power, we have to source something locally, says Siv Rauset, chief union representative in the Norwegian Business and Leisure Workers’ Association (NNN) at Nordfjord Kjøtt. – It was good for the low-paid, says Jørgen Pedersen at Aker Solutions in Stord. At the shipyard, the employees now have high expectations for good results in local negotiations. Photo: Olav Røli / news The salary agreement is not over The 5.2 percent that the striking parties agreed on this week will form the basis for the rest of the negotiations that will take place in the coming time. This is not to say that there cannot be more strikes. – We know that both nurses and teachers would like more pay growth than is planned in the private sector, says economic commentator Cecilie Langum Becker. She believes that the greatest danger of a strike is linked to the teachers. Last year there was a forced pay committee, and the teachers thought they got a bad deal when they went on strike. – They lag behind the private sector when it comes to wage decline. They have felt cheated for many years. The will to fight is probably quite strong there, says Langum Becker. This graphic shows why there were strikes and breakdowns in the negotiations: Prices are expected to increase by 4.9% this year. The ombudsman proposes that the average salary should increase by 5.2%. Of the 5.2%, 3.3 percentage points are a fixed supplement that cannot be changed locally. While the last 1.9 percentage points are to be determined in local negotiations, and may vary. LO believes that the local pot will be used differently and give some people lost purchasing power, contrary to the goal of the settlement. Graphics: Eirik Kirkaune
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– Everything depends on the local supplement – news Vestland
