Pay raises end airport
strike
Flights could start taking off again at 12 airports around Norway Wednesday morning. A strike by airport workers that had forced the grounding of much of the country's domestic air traffic ended during the night with a new pay pact.
 Flights could start rolling away from the gate again on Wednesday. PHOTO: SCANPIX |
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The two sides in the conflict – Norway's civil aviation authority Avinor and the union representing airport workers LO Stat – went back to the bargaining table late Tuesday and hammered out a wage settlement around 2am Wednesday.
It calls for Avinor's employees at the airports to get an overall raise of at least NOK 19,000 a year (about USD 3,800). Workers will also receive higher pay for working shifts outside daytime, weekday work hours.
A union representative said a revamp of the pay system was the most important for the workers, who had started walking off the job last Friday. Their strike paralyzed air traffic through some of Norway's biggest cities, including Bergen and Stavanger.
Airlines started scrambling Wednesday morning to resume normal schedules. They cautioned, however, that flight delays were expected throughout the day.
The airlines, who have had their own share of labour trouble, felt they were innocent victims of the Avinor-LO Stat conflict. They claimed they were losing millions, while thousands of their passengers were being hit hard, because of a conflict over which they had no control.
The strike only involved around 400 Avinor employees at 13 airports around the country including Oslo, but they worked in positions tied to emergency response. Airport administrators had to close the airports because there wouldn't have been enough rescue staff on hand in case of an accident.
State officials had said they were refusing to step in and force a settlement. The strike started affecting transport of workers to and from oil installations in the North Sea on Tuesday, however, prompting speculation that pressure would be applied to end the strike.
Nina Berglund/NTB
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