Lockout is a tool that the employer side can use in a labor dispute, as in the current strike. Then a complete or partial work stoppage is implemented, to force a solution to the conflict.
In short, this means that all companies that are affiliated with the employer or the employers’ association, which in this case is NHO, are denied employment.
In other words, no employees are allowed to work.
In Norway, lockouts are recognized as a legal remedy in collective bargaining disputes, ie disputes concerning the establishment or revision of collective bargaining agreements. Lockout corresponds to the workers’ side’s means of combat strike.
A lockout will continue until the parties agree on a new collective agreement, or until the authorities intervene and stop the conflict by a forced wage board.
Lockout is thus the opposite of a strike – where it is the employee who puts in the work to push forward his demands.
Source: Large Norwegian encyclopedia
–sea view
– It is a dirty game to end a legal strike, but that is the rules, says the aircraft technician VG has spoken to.
– It is basically the industry itself that goes beyond, if there is a forced wage board. Then I am afraid we will continue with bad conditions and not be able to recruit enough for the profession, he continues.
VG has spoken with two aircraft technicians from SAS. Both are in their 50s, one of them is on strike, the other has recently quit his job. Here they explain why the strike had to come now, just as the summer holidays begin.
None of them want to come forward with names, after NFO leader Jan Skogseth received threats and hate messages, as TV2 reported Monday.
When VG tried to get aircraft technicians from SAS, Widerøe and Norwegian on Tuesday, we received different versions of the same answer:
«They express concern and discomfort in connection with. the postings about threats against Jan Skogseth. Sorry », writes SAS association leader in NFO in a text message.
– What do you think would have happened if you had stood up? asks the VG SAS aircraft technician on strike.
– Then I think I would have been sought out, where I live and such, he says.
– I think I would have problems. It would probably have been tough, he says.
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RECEIVED HATE MESSAGES: NFO leader Jan Skogseth told TV2 that he was told to “rot in hell” or that he should have had “blue lines instead of wage settlements”. Photo: Frode Hansen / VG – I think we strike to be damn
He says he has a great understanding that people react to the strike and that he personally would like to see it come at another time.
– The holiday is perhaps one of the most important things you have in the year. It creates a lot of emotions in people and a lot of anger, he says.
– People think we’re going on strike this summer because we’re supposed to be fucking not true. That’s not it, it’s because we’re assigned mediation now.
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FIX: – We are mostly flying nerds with a passion for aircraft, say the aircraft technicians VG has spoken to. This is an illustration taken in a hangar in the French city of Toulouse in 2018.Photo: REMY GABALDA / AFP
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FRAME: Norwegian has canceled several flights in recent days.
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–FIX: – We are mostly flying nerds with a passion for aircraft, say the aircraft technicians VG has spoken to. This is an illustration taken in a hangar in the French city of Toulouse in 2018.Photo: REMY GABALDA / AFP –
– Everything is picked apart
The aircraft technician began in the industry in the 1990s, when the airlines’ heyday was in full swing. The 30 years he has worked as an aircraft technician have been characterized by cuts and financial cuts, he says:
– In the end, everything is picked apart. You have no benefits anymore. It’s just the salary you’re left with and a stressful everyday life.
Wages are precisely a key point in the strike negotiations. NHO Luftfart has described the aircraft technicians’ wage demands as «Completely extreme» . According to NHO Aviation NFO demands a wage increase of 17 percent, or 60 kroner per hour.
Other employees have received a settlement within the front-line settlement, of around 3.7 per cent.
– Can not be recruited
– Are you a little demanding when you demand so much?
– I think you have to pick that number apart. 18 percent is probably NHO who has calculated, says the aircraft technician.
– But for a number of years we have been too kind to a company that always wants to use the savings knife. In the end, it gets so low that it has to be cleaned up.
The problem is, according to the flight technicians VG has spoken to, that cuts in the aviation industry have made their profession so unattractive that they struggle to both recruit young people and keep those who are already in the profession.
– Became dangerous to health
Because while the salary of an aircraft technician who works night shifts, weekends and holidays is over 800,000 kroner a year, it is different for those who work day shifts, such as the aircraft technician on strike, according to the SAS association leader in NFO.
Aircraft technicians make shift plans that often involve a lot of night shifts. At SAS, about 25-30 percent of aircraft technicians work one hundred percent at night, according to the association leader. Most, around 60 percent, work a third of night shifts. The rest work during the day.
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MAYBE NEXT OUT: On Friday it will be known if the pilots in SAS will be taken out on strike. Photo: PONTUS LUNDAHL / TT – The night job was dangerous to my health , says the aircraft technician.
After 20 years with a lot of night shifts, the father of the family was informed during a health check at work that he had heart problems and a high risk of heart attack.
– That day, it was the health service in SAS that pressed the button.
He switched to pure day shifts and lost about 30 percent of his salary, he says.
– We have a fantastic job that means a lot to me. But everything around, everything that was there before, it’s gone. Nothing works anymore, he says.
– Now we hang so much after people quit.
– Goes over the line
Quitting is exactly what the other flight technician VG has talked to has done. He has not gone on strike, but still wants to remain anonymous.
– I think it is a bit shocking, he says about the threats and hate messages the NFO leader has received.
– One might think that in today’s social media society, it is only to be expected. But it goes over the line.
– Is it not legitimate that people get angry when there is a strike right now, as people were going on holiday?
– It is quite clear that people should have the opportunity to give vent to frustration. But the way it is done, with threats and incitement, it is not okay. It is not something I want to expose myself and my family to, he says.
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STRIKE RARELY: The flight technicians VG has spoken to have never gone on strike, and do not remember that there has been a strike in the profession in the last 30 years. This is an illustration picture, taken in a hangar in Copenhagen in January. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix He too is a family man in his 50s. After more than 25 years in the job, where he worked about a third of night shifts, he will soon finish as an aircraft technician for good.
– It gets worse with the years. You sleep worse during the day. It gets a little tiring after a while, he says.
For a long time, it was worth the trouble to give up weekend trips, Christmas Eve and New Year celebrations with the family, he says, because working with planes was a youthful dream.
– I really enjoy the job I do. Being out, fixing planes, looking passengers in the eye, making things work, it’s still there, he says.
– But everything around has changed. Everything becomes a battle. It takes on.
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