To the IWA-Sections and Friends
From the NSF-IWA

SAS HOTEL WORKERS IN OSLO: TEN YEARS FIGHT AGAINST CASUAL LABOUR!

The Norwegian Syndicalist Federation (NSF) has kept the IWA Sections updated on the developments in this conflict during the nineties. The 210 workers strong local- union is today in 2002 reduced, but has not been crushed yet, even that one of their activists Britt Bergsund was dismissed in 1999. We refer herby from the struggles in 1993/1994: Experiences that should be of interests for the IWA action against Temporary Work Agencies, casual labour and unemployment in the second week of April 2002.

The hotel and restaurant branch in Norway is dominated by part time workers, short-time workers and flexible jobs and has, as elsewhere, a low percentage of organized workers.. An important exception of this is the union (workplace organization) at the Scandinavian Airlines System Hotel in Oslo. It is the most active and strongest workplace organization of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Federation.

In 1993 the SAS wanted to use an external firm (Temporary Work Agency) in the hotel and dismiss 120 workers. This was met by massive reactions by the workers. They prepared for an illegal strike, and other workers said they would boycott the hotel if the SAS tried to work out their plans. These measures forced the SAS to withdraw the plans, and after negotiations no one was fired. The SAS company said in an agreement that they in the future would not use external firms.

But it went only six months until the company wanted to break the agreement by forcing another external firm into the hotel. This time they intended to use a famous gourmet cook, Bent Stiansen, as a tool to crush the union and flexibilize the hotel. If he had opened an restaurant at the SAS Hotel, another restaurant would have to shut and many workers would have lost their jobs. And if this restaurant was "taken", it would have weakened the union substantially since many of its activist worked in this restaurant.

The shop stewards got signals from the employers that this time "The Employers Association" (NHO) was willing to use huge resources to crush them, but the union answered this by mobilizing its members and electing an action committee. They mobilized also other workers. Resolutions of boycott of the hotel were received: For example the vine monopoly workers said they would not transport alcohol to the hotel, and the lift engineer and maintenance workers said that they would not repair the lift in the hotel. All this would have been illegal sympathy actions. The lift engineer and maintenance workers union had already got a fine of 800 000 Norwegian Crowns (80 000 Pound) for illegal actions in 1993 and that is a union that understands what union busting is about.

All this activity made the cook Bent Stiansen to withdraw his plans of opening a restaurant. At the 15th of March 1994 he said that he would not be a victim of a struggle between the employers and the local union. This was by the union considered to be a partial victory. A victory since the concrete plans to crush the union failed, but partial since the employers still said that they would use the next opportunity to use external firms and casual labour and challenge the union.

This challenge came the summer 1994, when the employers said they would dismiss workers by replacing them by casual labour and extra turns. This was met by an unofficial strike by the workers. A strike committee was formed and tamil workers were going on a hunger strike! The employers had to give in, but unfortunately only temporary. They said they would freeze the dismissals. Later on they would dismiss the workers again, and they started a very strong campaign against the union and its members. Then, later the union took the dismissals to court and the cases were won. The conflict was exposed in all the large newspapers in Norway.
One important reason of the success of the SAS-Hotel workers is that their union has been functioning from bottom and up, and that they have worked a lot to create a safe environment among the workers regardless of skills, colour and sex.. There are no full- time engaged shop stewards or workers delegates and the important decisions have been taken by the members at assemblies. This anti-authoritarian work has created a direct actionist attitude to solve the problems and union delegates has not been made responsible to the management.

At many other places of work, union delegates are the first to get "inside" information, and they accept the order to keep quiet about unpleasant decisions. The SAS local union has broken this tradition by telling the information to everyone, and often taken the issues to newspapers, much to the irritation of many SAS directors and leaders of the employers organisation, NHO.

Another reason is that they show no respect of the official trade union structure in Norway. They are questioning the LO membership and go directly to other workers and inform and mobilize them. In 1992 when the official union confederation (LO) was in national wage negotiations the local union at the SAS Hotel was one of the unions that would be called for a legal strike. The SAS Hotel workers said they would refuse to strike if the LO did not want to organize an efficiant strike with clear demands.