When an LO confederation is on strike, it is not unusual for the leader of LO to visit the strikers and thus contribute to putting pressure on the employers’ side in an ongoing conflict. The LO leader wholeheartedly gave up on the theater strike last year. You won’t find similar photos from this year’s teachers’ strike. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB But during the teachers’ strike, LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik has remained completely silent. This despite the fact that the Swedish Confederation of Norwegian Schools is included in the teachers’ strike. From Monday, as many as 107 of SL’s members are on strike. – In the municipal sector, you are in the special situation that one of LO’s unions has said no to a negotiation result that all the other unions have accepted, says Følsvik to news. Divided view When asked if she supports the strike and why she has not publicly come out with clear support for the LO members in the National Schools’ Association, she answers as follows: – The demand that the teachers’ organizations are striking for violates the distribution profile that the other associations have wanted. In view of that, LO leaves it up to the union itself to comment on the strike. Good atmosphere at the entrance to this year’s municipal settlement. Front: Tonje Leborg from Akademikerne municipality, Steffen Handal from Unio, Mette Nord from Fagforbundet, Tor Arne Gangsø from KS and Lizzie Ruud Thorkildsen from YS municipality. Photo: Torstein Bøe / NTB It will affect the entire collective agreement in the municipal sector if the strike among the teachers were to go ahead, says the LO leader. The settlement ended with an agreement this spring, with an exception for the teachers. – Associations that have already approved the result will be able to demand to negotiate again, says Følsvik. Support from Unio The supremely largest union that organizes teachers, Uddanningsforbundet, does not belong to LO, but to the main organization Unio. And Unio leader Ragnhild Lied, for her part, has no problems expressing clear support for the striking teachers. She has also done this at several public events. Unio leader Ragnhild Lied (th) has no problems expressing support for striking teachers. In contrast to LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB – Why do you think LO’s leader is so silent about this strike? – I think you almost have to ask her about that yourself. As Unio leader, I have supported our largest union, Uddanningsforbundet. Figures that KS itself has reported to the Technical Calculation Committee (TBU) show that teachers have had a lower salary development over time than other groups in the municipalities, says Lied. No support from the Trade Union In the municipal settlement, six different LO confederations are negotiating under the LO-Kommune umbrella. By far the biggest, there as elsewhere, is the Trade Union. The union’s powerful leader Mette Nord will not be interviewed about the teachers’ strike now, but when the conflict became a fact in May, she stated that she did not support the strike. – No, I do not support the strike because I believe we have secured a good distribution for everyone. If someone is to get more, someone else must get less, Nord told news on 24 May. The union’s leader Mette Nord does not support the teachers’ strike, she told news in May. All the organizations in the municipal settlement, as close as the three teachers’ organizations Uddanningsforbundet, the Norwegian Teachers’ Association and the National Schools’ Association, had then accepted the mediator’s outline as a solution. – Følsvik, is your lack of public support for the teachers related to the fact that the strike has met with opposition from the Trade Union? – I relate to the fact that all the other unions in the municipal sector, both small and large, have agreed to a negotiation result that gives a good distribution profile, says the LO leader. Support from the nurses Like the large trade union, the Norwegian Nurses’ Association also reached an agreement with the employer KS this time. When news asks union leader Lill Sverresdatter Larsen if she supports the teachers’ strike, she answers as follows: – Strikes are a legal means of struggle and, like any trade union, we are concerned with the right to strike for our own pay and working conditions. NSF therefore respects the teachers’ organizations’ choice to go on strike. The Nurses’ Association respects the teachers’ choice to go on strike, says union leader Lill Sverresdatter Larsen. Photo: SUNNIVA TONSBERG GASKI – What is your message to striking teachers and to the employer KS? – KS must solve the recruitment problems in the public sector in general. It is their responsibility. To the teachers, last night I sent a virtual hand on Handal’s shoulder. Going on strike is tough for all parties. – Will the Nurses’ Association demand that the negotiations be reopened or put forward demands for a corresponding mark-up as the teachers in the upcoming settlement, if the conflict ends with the teachers winning? – NSF works continuously to prepare salary settlements and what happens around us can have an impact on our assessments and possibly also on the requirements. Warns against forced wage boards The question of what it will take for the government to intervene and end the teachers’ strike with a forced wage board has come up strongly recently. Labor Minister Marte Mjøs Persen (Ap) can call off the strike at the compulsory wage board, but so far she has not taken that step. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB LO criticized the previous government for frequent use of forced wage boards. When news asks Peggy Hessen Følsvik what her message to the government will be in this current context, she answers as follows: – As for the question of the forced wage board, I have not seen that anyone from the government has spoken about it. I have no comment on that. Unio leader Ragnhild Lied also goes further here than her counterpart LO: – The forced wage board is an encroachment on the right to strike, which we have experienced too often. Most recently last year. The Norwegian Education Association is clear that they grant exemptions when there is a basis for it. The Nurses’ Association also issues a warning: – The NSF is critical of the use of compulsory wage boards and has advocated that the system must be reviewed, says Lill Sverresdatter Larsen. She is nevertheless worried that this strike will also affect an innocent third party, namely the students. – The associations have a tradition of protecting the most vulnerable groups. But it is clear that this affects students who have already been hit hard during a pandemic. Compulsory wage board * In Norway, we have no law that regulates the authorities’ right to intervene in a strike. Therefore, a separate bill is always presented to the Storting in the individual case if an intervention in the right to strike is relevant. An Act on Compulsory Wage Boards prohibits further strikes. * The right to strike follows from the Constitution and is otherwise enshrined in international conventions. * However, the right to strike is not absolute. Intervention can be taken in a conflict if it leads to danger to life or health, or has other serious social consequences. * Where such boundaries go will depend on a concrete and holistic assessment in each individual case. However, the threshold for resorting to a compulsory wage board must be high. * In the case of a compulsory wage board, it is the National Wage Board that is tasked with deciding the outcome of the strike. The tribunal consists of one chairman and eight other members, including two representatives for each of the parties in the individual case. * Since the first Wage Board Act was passed in 1952, around 150 labor disputes have ended in a compulsory Wage Board. (Sources: Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, NTB and Store Norske Lexikon)
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That is why she is silent about the teachers’ strike – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
