(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
- Even the Coop chain is probably a little shaken by our brutality, or cynicism – or let me say, what we are willing to do, says Per Østvold, leader of the Norwegian Transport Workers' Union (NTF). The trade union leader, who has once again taken his members on strike, has for years been at the forefront of revitalizing the labor movement's means of struggle.
And when the Trade and Service Industry's Main Organization (HSH) calls out that the transport workers' strike withdrawal distorts competition, Per Østvold gives them exactly the right: – If this strike lasts another week or two, the whole Norwegian people learn to shop at Coop, says Østvold. The Coop employees are organized in Handel og Kontor, and not in NTF or in the two YS unions that are also involved in the strike, Prifo and Yrkestransportforbundet (YTF). Therefore, Mega, Prix and the other cooperative shops abound with goods.
Same coin
The "idea" of using market law against employers came after transport workers were defeated in the conflict in 1998. The Supreme Court ruled that NTF could not prevent strike-affected companies from using carriers who were not on strike, and NTF was sentenced to pay compensation to the companies they had blocked. The Supreme Court held that in the same way that a customer has the right to choose another store, a transport company has the right to choose another supplier. And as the companies affected by the strike in 1998 chose other suppliers, Østvold is now asking customers to choose another store.
- You can say that we crudely and brutally give back with the same coin – plus ten percent. Our experience is that a strike must be conducted on the premises of market liberalism, and that we must challenge capital where it hits hardest. We set the big chains up against each other, says Per Østvold. They have thus done this by selectively taking strikes, so that the strike has a distorting effect on competition that employers cannot live with in the long run.
- Consumers are disloyal beings, and quickly learn to shop in another store, Østvold believes. He reckons that employers also understand that they risk losing customers not only during the strike, but also for a long time afterwards.
lockout
Therefore, Per Østvold believes that the chains may live with a strike for another week, but hardly two. The daily financial losses are enormous – the long-term ones he thinks could be just as big. At the same time, the selective strike withdrawal helps to reduce the risk of a forced wage board, because customers still have alternatives. Exactly that is probably dampened a bit by the employers' lockout – and just a little hesitantly, Per Østvold admits that they had to reckon with a lockout coming.
- It is very unusual with lockout, and the employers' experience with the tool is not good. There was a small lockout in the journalist strike last time, but otherwise we have to go back to the big lockout in 1986. It hit the employers like a boomerang, says Østvold.
- But with selective, competition-distorting strike withdrawal, and when the employers actually have an interest in a compulsory wage board, can you not have been surprised that the employers went to the lockout?
- No, we are not directly surprised, Østvold admits. He has little doubt that HSH is steering against the wage board, and points out, among other things, how reluctant the employers have been to process exemption applications. Now, Minister of Local Government Erna Solberg has also said from where the border goes: Dope paper we can live without, but diapers and breast milk substitutes the people must get.
Life and health
Because it is unlikely that the National Wages Board will meet the transport workers' demands if it should end with a forced wage board, it is crucial for Per Østvold and his strike comrades that "life and health" are not put at risk. This means that hospitals and other institutions must receive exemptions, while the rest of us buy nappies in the shops that er to open.
- We are dependent on a certain understanding with the Coop chain and the employees there, says Østvold.
- Coop is not considered well by the other chains if they export more goods than normal?
- This is probably not entirely easy for Coop to handle, and it is a balancing act for them as well, but all signals indicate that they will try to keep the wheels going. Then all the arguments for a compulsory wage board fall. And Coop can not refuse new customers to shop with them, says Østvold.
freeloaders
Internally in LO, there have been shared opinions about the transport workers' demands for so-called tariff surcharges, but this year LO leader Gerd-Liv Valla has stood a hundred percent behind Østvold and his members. The transport manager believes other unions can meet the same requirement later, if they now win through.
- The trade union movement has long tried to find solutions to the free passenger problem. In the co-operative movement, there was former organizational coercion, and in my view the freedom of association was loose, says Østvold, who believes that the demand for collective bargaining is far more cautious than other solutions one could envisage.
- Among the sailors in the NIS fleet, they pay unorganized tariff fees that are automatically deducted from the rent. We do not want such a solution, but rather to promote the interest in membership by rewarding the organized, says Østvold. He believes that one could also think in the direction of negotiating longer holidays or other social benefits only for the trade unions, but says: – We do not want to use the social welfare schemes.
New combat equipment
Still: Both the demand for tariff surcharges and the transport workers' strike withdrawals represent new trends in the Norwegian labor struggle. Per Østvold believes that the labor movement must constantly develop the forms of struggle in order to safeguard the interests of workers.
- It is old-fashioned to take everyone out on strike at once, then you ask for a compulsory wage board. Instead, one must look at selective withdrawals and, for example, whether one can withdraw striking according to a rotation principle. We must have the right to wage a workers' struggle also in a modern society, we must have the right to means of struggle, says Østvold.
In total, Østvold and his staff will go through nine rounds of negotiations, one of which led to a strike. Other three are settled without conflict, five remain. Østvold will not promote claims for tariff supplements for groups other than those at the wholesale warehouses.
- When this strike is over, we will gain experience and summarize. Then we will see if we promote the demand again for new groups in two years, says Østvold. Then he also believes – given that the transport workers emerge victorious from the strike – that other unions will follow.
