New employers organisation established

The founding assembly of the Norwegian Manufacturing Industry Association was held on 28 November 2005. It is the largest national association of NHO covering approximately 110,000 employees in more than 2,000 companies.

The founding assembly of the Norwegian Manufacturing Industry Association (unofficial translation of Norsk Industri) was held on 28 November 2005. The new organisation is the result of a merger between the Federation of Norwegian Manufacturing Industries (Teknologibedriftenes landsforening, TBL) and the Federation of Norwegian Process Industries (Prosessindustriens Landsforening, PIL), two of the largest member associations of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and industry (Næringslivets Hovedorganisasjon, NHO). The new association will not formally come into being until 1 January 2006.

Norsk Industri will be the largest of NHO’s national associations covering approximately 110,000 employees in more than 2,000 companies. TBL organise approximately 1,100 companies employing around 70,000 people in a range of industry areas (among others mechanical and electrical engineering to IT, furnishing and textile industries). PIL, which is somewhat smaller than TBL, has around 690 member companies with 46,000 employees, also with a diverse membership base (chemical industry, metallurgical industry, mining, pulp and paper, waste and recycling, to mention a few). In some cases you find overlapping memberships in the two organisations, although this predominantly take the form of different subsidiaries of a larger Group structure being members of the two organisations. The size of the new organisation suggests that it will have significant influence both within the NHO system, as well as in the broader economy vis-à-vis the national authorities. Mr. Stein Lier-Hansen was chosen as the leader of the new organisation. He was previously the General Secretary of PIL.

The issue of creating a larger interest organisation for the traditional industries has been on the agenda for some time. Talks between TBL and PIL were first initiated in 2003. The purpose of these talks were to strengthen the political influence of the industry, as well as achieving a more efficient resource exploitation in the two associations at a time when employment in the traditional manufacturing industry is in decline. Many companies have relocated their production abroad, or have been closed down in face of increasing international competition. These discussions broke down due to disagreement over the degree of autonomy to be awarded the various branches of the two associations. These rationales were also instrumental in bringing talks back on the agenda in 2004. A pooling of resources is seen to be vital in order to influence political and economic developments that affect the exposed industries. Hence, the prime objectives of the new organisations will be to promote the interest of the traditional industries, discern their importance in the value creation process, and to maintain these industries role as trend setting industries in relation to wage formation in Norway. The move made by the two associations has also prompted talks and discussions about closer cooperation among other associations in NHO. There are fears that Norsk Industri will become too dominant at the expense of the influence of the smaller associations within NHO. So far it has not materialised in any concrete initiatives.

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