Strike hits mobile offshore oil units

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Strike action was taken on mobile offshore oil units on the Norwegian shelf from midnight on 24 August 1997. Despite mediation, employers and the OFS union were not able to reach a new agreement. The strike will not have immediate effects on Norwegian oil production.

At midnight on Sunday 24 August 1997, mediation between the Employers' Organisation for Ships and Offshore Installations (ASO) and the Federation of Offshore Workers Trade Union (OFS) terminated without reaching a new wage agreement. In the first instance, the strike encompassed approximately 350 of the 1,000 or so OFS members within the relevant wage agreement area, and five oil platforms were affected. The strike is expected to be costly for the employers, but it will not stop Norwegian oil production.

The wage settlement for the mobile offshore units on the Norwegian shelf covers approximately 2,500 employees. ASO and three different employee organisations are parties to the negotiations. In addition to OFS, two other organisations have agreements covering employees on mobile offshore units - the Norwegian Oil and Petrochemical Workers' Union (NOPEF) and DSO (a cooperation between the organisations for ships' engineers and mates). ASO, NOPEF and DSO reached agreement during the negotiations which took place in summer 1997. The new agreements, which provide for pay increases of approximately 8%, were accepted by the vast majority of members in separate ballots. The fact that two out of three employee organisations have reached agreement, complicates the present conflict. In addition, the union rivalry which has been going on for some time between NOPEF, which is an affiliate of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), and OFS, which recently joined the competing Confederation of Vocational Unions (YS) (NO9703106N), does not make the bargaining situation any easier.