Over 6,000 state employees may strike next week

Students defy calls for exchangeStudents at university.Photo: Frank May / NTB scanpix

Many students may not be able to graduate if there is a strike among state employees next week. A strike could also hit Nav, the police, and many prisons hard.

 

Negotiations of the state settlement broke down at the end of April, and the parties meet on Tuesday for mediation at the Riksmekleren. The four federations,LO Stat, Unio, Akademikerne, and YS have announced that they will take approximately 6,200 on strike from Thursday morning if the parties do not reach agreement.

LO Stat will take out a total of 4,000 members, and the union is concentrated especially in Oslo and Trondheim,where a number of employees at the two cities’ Nav and tax offices would strike. In addition, Oslo and Trondheim Prisons are affected, as well as workers on the restoration of Nidaros Cathedral.

LO Stat would also takes out a number of employees in all ministries and in many underlying directorates and agencies, including more than 200 police officers and members of the police directorate.

LO Stat Chairman, Egil André Aas, said the organization will work hard to find a solution.

“It’s always the goal. At the same time, we also need to prepare ourselves for stopping this,” he said.

Could hold up examimantions

Unio would take out 1.100 members in the first strike exit.

This applies, for example, to universities and colleges, to various occupational groups in the police, tax offices and among Nav employees.

“A strike would hit large parts of the country, and would be felt especially in all the big cities,” said Kjetil Rekdal, who chairs the conflict committee in Unio Stat.

Nine of the country’s universities and colleges could go on strike on Thursday, May the 24th, which might mean that many students would not pass an exam.

This applies to the University of Agder, the University of Oslo,Oslo Met, the University of Stavanger, University of Tromsø-Norway’s Arctic University, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, and the University of Bergen.

Sober optimism

The academics would initially take out 814 members. These work primarily in the Agriculture Directorate, the Environment Directorate,the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, Nav, the Police, the Ministry of Security and Service Organization, and the Norwegian Defense Research Institute.

YS have announced that they will remove 300 members from the ministries,the Tolldirektoratet and Bjørgvin Prison in Bergen in their first strike exit.

“We are in the process of sober optimism, and hope to reach a good deal,” said a statement by YS Stat’s Pål N. Arnesen.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today