Annual wage negotiations between Norway’s largest labour- and employer organizations fell apart on Tuesday and had to head into mediation. The last such bargaining sesson for labour boss Peggy Hessen Følsvik was thus not ending without a fight, despite all the other turbulence in the world at present.
There already was broad agreement over how inflation has picked up again and also how most of Norwegian industry and various businesses have done well in recent years. Most have chalked up solid profits that the labour organizations think should be shared with workers.
Even Norway’s new finance minister, Jens Stoltenberg, had stated during the state’s own budget talks last week that he thinks “there’s room for real wage growth this year.” Labour groups have been wanting at least 2.2 percent on top of an agreed inflation rate, which had been set at 2.5 percent.
The latter suddenly rose last week, however, to 2.7 percent, setting off a new round of uncertainty. That suggested a minimum wage demand of 4.9 percent from the labour unions, probably more. Details weren’t immediately available, but the two sides clearly didn’t come to terms despite some predictions that put a settlement at around 5 percent, perhaps a bit more.
“We have tried during four days of negotiations to come to an agreement,” said Følsvik, leader of Norway’s trade union confederation LO. “We now must declare that we’re far apart from one another.”
No numbers were offered as she and the leader of LO’s counterpart, employers’ organization NHO, said they’d thus asked the state mediator for help. Another large labour organization, YS, also broke off negotiations with NHO on Tuesday. It represents around 20,000 workers in the hotel and restaurant business, bakers, housekeeping personnel, oil workers and bus drivers among others. YS leader Hans-Erik Skjæggerud called the negotiations “demanding.”
All involved will now head into mediation on March 31. If there’s no settlement, strikes can loom from April 2. In some ways, it all follows a traditional pattern of labour negotiations opting for mediation instead of settling themselves. There’s an annual tug-of-war and neither LO nor NHO would want it to look like that they gave in too easily.
The sudden and surprising jump in the inflation rate clearly set off new uncertainty on both sides, with employers’ worrying that their costs will jump again and employees worried they’ll lose out on any real wage growth again. There’s also a labour shortage in Norway, seeming to put labour in a good position regarding its demands, while employers’ representatives can complain of looming trade wars and totally unpredictable politicians in the US who are stirring up trouble in markets all over the world.
“We have had good and constructive negotiations,” said NHO boss Ole Erik Almlid, but he agreed with Folsvik that the two sides were “still far apart.” Both seemed to downplay any drama, saying it was “natural” to ask the mediator for assistance.
The 64-year-old LO leader Følsvik, meanwhile, hopes to end her long career in the labour sector without a strike: “We have good experience with the mediator. We hope and believe that we will land a solution that both sides can be part of.”
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund