More than 300 oil service employees in Norway have gone on strike this morning after mediation talks yesterday were said to have failed.
Industry Energy, a union which represents workers, claimed the Norwegian Oil & Gas association did not show willingness to meet workers "moderate demands" (translated from Norwegian).
The strike is over a claimed pay gap between operator, drilling, catering and oil service staff on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
Industry Energy says walk outs are reported at Schlumberger Norway, Baker Hughes Norway, Halliburton Norway, Oceaneering and Oceaneering Asset Integrity.
The body says it is primarily environmental management of drilling waste that will be stopped during the strike, which means drilling operations will be stopped to prevent discharge into the sea. Computer engineers who work with well monitoring and people who govern unmanned underwater vehicles (ROV) on Songa Offshore's Cat D semisubmersible rigs are also in the strike, says the body. Songa has four Cat D rigs, all rebuild and working for Statoil offshore Norway.
Should talks continue to fail, the body says more of its 6000 members will go on strike.
The action comes during one of the industry's hardest downturns. Just this week, global companies, with significant presences in Norway, including FMC Technologies, Aker Solutions and Technip announced further job cuts. Estimates have put UK North job losses as reaching 120,000 by the end of this year. Global estimates were put at more than 350,000 by Houston based Graves & Co. in May this year. Little respite is expected any time soon, with global oil supplies remaining in abundance.
Yesterday, the NOIA's lead negotiator Jan Hodneland said: “Supplier companies have been particularly hard-hit by the decline in activity on the Norwegian continental shelf [NCS]. That’s involved big cost cuts and constant downsizing. These companies can’t cope with further growth in their costs. That would make the position worse both for them and for the people they employ.”
NOIA says Hodneland believes that a cautious pay settlement will help to improve the competitive terms for Norway’s supplier companies, and that both employers and unions must contribute preserving as many jobs as possible.
The strike action in Norway comes just months after workers went on strike in the UK North Sea. Nearly 400 workers in the RMT and Unite unions staged strikes earlier this summer over up to 30% pay cuts and changes to allowances. The workers work for Wood Group on oil major Shell's assets in the North Sea.
The strikes, over 24 hours and then 48 hours, in July and August, were the first in 28 years. A "mutually agreeable proposal" was agreed and the strike action halted earlier this month.
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