Unio said no to proposed solution – over 7000 municipal employees are taken out on strike – VG

VG updates the case.

It reports the employer organization KS at 05.45 on Thursday morning. Then the parties have been mediating at the Ombudsman’s office for almost six hours of overtime, after the deadline expired at midnight.

– The wage offer that was in the sketch from the broker was far too poor, and the distance between us and KS was too great. There is a lack of both health personnel and teachers in the municipal sector. We must acknowledge that KS as an employer is unable to solve this major societal problem, says chief negotiator Steffen Handal in Unio municipality in a press release.

Unio, which is Norway’s largest main organization for employees with higher education, has announced in advance that they will take 7388 members on strike if they do not reach an agreement.

This includes both teachers and nurses across the country – see the full list here. The strike will initially affect kindergartens, schools, health institutions and libraries in a total of 13 municipalities and 9 county municipalities, Unio states in a press release.

– Managed to find a solution

LO municipality, YS municipality and the Academics, for their part, agreed on a framework of 2.8 percent, which gives employees a salary supplement of between 10,000 and 22,000 kroner, writes NTB.

– KS is happy with a solution that secures the purchasing power for municipal employees. Unio refused this, and chooses to go on strike in a demanding situation for the country. Their demands were impossible to meet, says head of negotiations in KS, Tor Arne Gangsø, in the press release on Thursday morning.

YS municipality says in a press release that they are happy to have reached a solution so that they avoid strikes.

– We managed to find a solution and avoided a strike, says leader of YS Spekter, Lizzie Ruud Thorkildsen, in a press release at 05.45 on Thursday morning.

– Municipal employees have been and still are at the forefront of the pandemic. Our members form the backbone of municipal services. Without them, the sector will stop. It would be completely unreasonable for these to go out of this year’s settlement with lost purchasing power, she adds.

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The mediation in the interim settlement actually had a deadline at midnight on Thursday night, but lasted over five hours of overtime.

This year interim settlement on wage adjustments, there have been steep fronts in the state and municipal settlement. There are also separate negotiations for Oslo, so there are three parallel mediations that are now taking place at different hotels in the capital.

– They have not reached an agreement so far. I hope that one
through the evening and night can get closer to each other and come to an agreement, said mediator Mats Wilhelm Ruland when he met VG at 11 pm – an hour before the deadline expired.

The mediator stated that finances are the topic of mediation in the interim settlement. When he spoke to VG at 11 pm, he was optimistic that the parties would be able to reach an agreement.

– It is the case that most mediations end up with the parties agreeing, and we will try to achieve that here as well, he said.

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To VG, Ruland described the atmosphere in the mediation as «good and professional».

– But it is clear, there are difficult issues we must find a solution to, so it also affects the mediation.

Therefore, they warn of a possible strike

It has been announced in advance that the will to strike before this year’s settlement has been great.

– The main reason why this is going in the direction of a strike is that the wage development has been far too bad for us teachers, nurses and other hard workers in the municipalities. We must have a real wage increase. If there is no strike, Bjørn Sigurd Hjetland, the leader of the Education Association in Bærum, told VG Wednesday.

Both he and tens of thousands of colleagues in the municipalities have so far remained loyal to the so-called front-line subject model, where the parties in the industrial settlement negotiate first – and determine the wage framework.

Thousands of municipal employees react to the fact that their wage growth does not follow the so-called front-line trade model, where the parties in the industrial settlement negotiate first – and determine the wage framework.

The trade union, which is LO’s largest union and the giant on the employee side in the municipal settlement, assumes that they have a weaker wage development since the settlement last year, of around 0.5 percent compared to front subject.

Trade union leader Mette Nord said on Wednesday that the strike was marked by the corona pandemic.

– We have protected children and young people, health and everyone who works with the vaccination program in the municipalities. Both school, kindergarten and SFO will work as usual. We believe that they have been through such demanding times, that it would be wrong to hit them further. In addition, we screen the vaccination program, says Nord in a press release.

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