Norwegian Prime Minister supports boycott of Wizz Air

Erna SolbergPhoto: Stian Lysberg Solum / NTB

Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) made it clear that Wizz Air cannot forbid its employees to unionize. She supports the boycott of the company.

“I will not fly with a company that refuses workers the right to organize,” Solberg said in the Norwegian parliament (Storting) on Wednesday.

“In the same way that I have never flown with Ryanair. Because ten years ago, I said that it was unacceptable for me to travel with airlines that do not have proper and tidy working conditions for their employees,” she continued.

Solberg made it clear that according to Norwegian law, Wizz Air cannot refuse employees the right to organize.

Boycott background

Last week, Wizz Air announced that they are starting up domestic routes from Oslo to Bergen, Trondheim, and Tromsø after flying abroad from Norway for almost 15 years.

The Hungarian company has made it clear that they will not enter into collective agreements with trade unions. 

That has led to opposition among the trade unions in Norway.  

Unions Industri Energi and Nito will not let their employees use the company for business trips.

On Wednesday, Wizz Air’s founder and CEO József Váradi said it was childish that several unions and organizations want to boycott the company’s domestic routes in Norway.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

4 Comments on "Norwegian Prime Minister supports boycott of Wizz Air"

  1. Of course she supports a boycott against wizz air, people in the west can’t have cheep flights to prevent them from traveling on the death roads because the lying bullshitting uturning government has to squeeze every kroner they can out of the people in the west so Oslo can get the best of everything we pay for

  2. Ferenc Koncz | 18. October 2020 at 17:54 | Reply

    This is more a collision of Cultures and Values.

    The Hungarians (and other Post-Communist cultures) have lost trust in Unionization, as Unions were in cahoots with the Communist/Socialist Governments. In civilized western societies Unionization was a right workers have won through centuries of fight and is actually a Tool of negotiations to avoid revolutions and social unrest. Unfortunately this is not how Mr. Váradi – based on his Hungarian cultural experiences – sees Unions.

  3. Unhappy Norwegian | 21. October 2020 at 12:02 | Reply

    Of course, the unions must be kept in power in socialist Norway. And of course this is just an excuse to protect ‘real Norwegian’ organizations like Norwegian, SAS and Widerøe. Prices of domestic Norwegian flights are kept artificially very high by the SK/DY duopoly (Widerøe mostly operates PSO routes to small regional airports from hubs, and cooperates with the duopoly to get people flown to those hubs), with over $100 one way being the normal standard (excluding any amenities like checked bags, etc) for a 45 minute flight to Bergen or Trondheim, for example. WizzAir now operates with offers from $20 one way.

    WizzAir knows very well that it cannot go against the law in Norway if it wants to operate domestic flights there, even though the room on board the aircraft is Hungarian and Hunarian law applies there. We’ve seen it happen before, a few years ago, with Ryanair in Denmark where unionized staff of other airlines was made so angry by the union’s ‘leadership’ that they physically threatened Ryanair staff and blocked them from doing their jobs. How low can they go? Do we need such situations in Norway too? Physical violence encouraged by unions?

    I’m giving them a chance, will hop on board one of their flights soon to see how they’re doing. It’s good that protectionist, nationalist and socialist Norway finally gets the shakeup and the kick in the butt that it should have had for many years ago. I hope this leads to Norway opening up for more products and services from outside Norway. It’s crazy how everyday products like groceries are up to 5 times more expensive in Norway, just ‘to protect the Norwegian market’, compared to what you pay just across the border in Sweden, while Norway doesn’t produce alternatives. Who are they ‘protecting’ then? The unions?

  4. This is pretty funny for me! worked for Telenor Hungary alm9st 15 years ago. When the employees tried to join to the trade union, most of them were outsourced (cca 600 employees)!
    So, please boycott Telenor as well!

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