Against the background of the case, Stein Lier-Hansen took the initiative on Monday for a lockout against the industrial strike that the confederation LO Industri Energi initiated in the process industry August 15, which hit giants such as Hydro, Alcoa, Boliden and Elkem.
The blockade plan had central NHO support and was to be implemented Wednesday at 1500.
Industri Energi’s manager Frode Alfheim was informed in advance of the blockade a couple of hours before its implementation. He then contacted his counterpart, Stein Lier-Hansen, and within hours, Wednesday afternoon, they reached an agreement and the strike was canceled.
The solution was that Industri Energi’s claim for action rights in local wage bargaining should be investigated.
Lier-Hansen and NHO used extreme force – threat of lockout – to pressure Industri Energi to finish the strike. He can.
Lier-Hansen received unanimous support from his board and NHO for a major lockdown that would lock all employees of all process industry companies out of their jobs.
In connection with the canceled strike on Wednesday, Lier-Hansen gave an interview to VG about the blockade, which caused strong reactions in LO.
This is what he said:
– In working life, workers have a strike as a means of action. Employers have a block. I think we have to accept that both sides must ultimately be able to use the means we have to resolve a conflict.
He added:
– It is defined that it is more normal that LO can use a strike, while we cannot use a block. I am not saying that there will be many lockouts in the future, but I think it must be legitimate to equate the two measures, strike and lockout.
–sea View
Norsk Industri chairman Ståle Kyllingstad confirms to VG that he has not made or planned to make any changes to his view on the use of blocks.
– There is no change in the Norwegian industry’s attitude towards the right to strike or lockout. That’s how it’s been for the past 15-20 years, he says.
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SUPPLIER: Ståle Kyllingstad is the daily managing director of IKM Gruppen, in Sola near Stavanger, which supplies equipment and services to the oil industry. Photo: Kyrre Lien / VG Norwegian industry president Kyllingstad supports the NHO chief’s emphasis that they have not adopted or planned any changes related to the use of the block.
– When NHO has to go out like that and apologize and you say that Norsk Industri’s attitude towards using blocks hasn’t changed; do you still trust Lier-Hansen?
– Yup.
– Was that almost a yes?
– I have full confidence in Stein Lier-Hansen.
– There won’t be many blocks
Lier-Hansen told VG on Saturday who is still true to what he said but that was meant as a signal, not a marching order or decision.
– I stressed precisely this in the interview: I said that it is not that there will be many lockouts in the future, but that “it must be legitimate to equate the two measures, strike and lockout”, said Lier-Hansen.
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EQUAL: Stein Lier-Hansen states that strikes and lockouts are two powerful tools that exist and are equal. Photo: Javad Parsa / VG He said he has spent the past 16 years preventing conflict.
– And I have not advocated any formal changes related to the use of lockout. But I said that a lockout is the tool that employers have as a counterweight to the strike. I represent the two powerful tools that exist and are the same.
Most used block
The block has been little used as a means of combat in recent decades. NHO severely burned his fingers in 1986, when NHO’s predecessor, the Norwegian Employers’ Association, excluded more than 100,000 members organized by LO from their jobs. It ended with the resignation of the head of the NAF.
But the block has been used more recently, also this summer NHO Luftfart used it to end the flight engineer strike which has prevented thousands of vacation-hungry Norwegians from going on vacation abroad.
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