Norway. Spring strikes again

A troublesome annual ritual

MAY should be a happy month for Norwegians. Warmer weather allows for the first utepils, or beers drunk outside. Newspaper readers (no other nation is so devoted to the press) venture out to balconies and outdoor cafes. The May 17th national day is celebrated with feasts of meat, cheese and fish. This year was especially jolly, as it marked 99 years of independence from Sweden.

But another May tradition threatens the fun: strikes. Last week, nearly 3,000 workers at a dozen breweries briefly went on strike, leading the makers of Ringnes, the much-loved national beer, to talk of shifting production to Poland. Journalists also downed pens for several days, leaving newspapers nothing to publish but advertisements. A five-week strike by transport workers has left supermarket shelves bare of vegetables, eggs, milk, cheese, washing powder and nappies. “It's suddenly more like eastern Europe was,” said one Oslo resident, unimpressed by empty shops in the capital of one of Europe's richest countries.

Neighbouring Swedes and Danes were quick to gloat. Gleeful callers to a Danish radio station promised to dispatch toilet rolls to desperate Norwegians. Sales at Swedish supermarkets on the border rose by as much as half in early May, according to one Norwegian retail group. Norwegians already spend some NKr9 billion ($1.3 billion) a year in Swedish shops, where meat, cheese and beer are all cheaper than at home.

The strike ended on May 24th, after the transport union backed down from an absurd demand that union members should be paid more than non-union members. But further disruption is on the way. Most industries have centralised wage negotiations every two years, and the season has just got under way. Nurses, teachers, cleaners, librarians and civil servants are all starting tricky wage negotiations that could easily lead to more strikes.

Public-sector workers are particularly anxious to win assurances that their generous pensions will be paid as promised. But, as elsewhere in Europe, an ageing Norway will struggle to honour these promises, despite its oil wealth and a bulging savings fund worth some NKr915 billion ($133 billion). A government commission of inquiry is looking for solutions. One obvious one is to ask people to spend more time working. But that is hardly popular. No wonder the unions consider that the spring negotiations are a good time to get their views across - before the summer holidays.

Features looks at industrial unrest in Norway during the annual pay and conditions round of negotiations.