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‎ THE AGONIA OF THE NORWEGIAN DOCKWORKERS CONTINUES!!!!!

Norwegian Dockworkers lose in the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has ruled that a boycott of Holship to get the company to sign a collective bargaining agreement with the Norwegian Transport Workers’ Federation (NTF) was in breach of the provision within the EEA agreement of freedom of establishment as it prevented the company from using its own employees for loading and unloading.



President of the Norwegian Transport Workers Agreement, Lars Morten Johnsen, was clearly unhappy with the decision: “I am extremely disappointed. This means that the Supreme Court has decided that the collective bargaining agreement we have in the Norwegian ports is unlawful. This is a catastrophe for Havne-Norge (Norwegian Ports) and we can no longer live under the reins of the EEA. Johnsen is also clear that the ruling should lead to a fundamental debate about the EEA at the LO, “It could be a very exciting LO congress in the spring”, he said.

EEA =EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA.

LO= Norwegian national trade union body.







Check out today's issue of the ETF Dockers' newsletter: a disgraceful judgement from Norway rules that economic freedoms prevail over workers' right. This is part of the political and legal attacks that are targeting dock labour schemes in Europe. At the same time, there are hopes that the infringement procedure against Belgium on the port labour law is withdrawn soon. This is thanks to the hard work done by our affiliates in Belgium to negotiate updates to current legislation, well done!







