The dockers in Oslo have been locked out of their job at the container terminal since 1st February when Turkish company, Yilport, took over operations. Yilport has refused to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement or enter into mediation talks.

Yilport has blatantly ignored the dockers’ exclusive right to the work of loading and unloading ships, a right that is enshrined in ILO Convention 137, which was ratified in Norway in 1974 and still applies.

Yilport is now using casual labour from a job agency and some of its own employees to do the job that the dockers have the exclusive right to do and are demanding to do again.

In May this year, the situation became increasingly worse for the dockers when the company they were employed by, Oslo Loading and Unloading Office (direct translation), closed. The employers in the port of Oslo and NHO (the Norwegian employers’ association) had long been planning to declare the company bankrupt, despite the fact that the collective bargaining agreement between the Norwegian Transport Workers’ Federation and NHO requires such a company to exist in the port. All the businesses, agencies and shipping companies that are members of NHO stopped using the dockers in May. This is a serious breach of the collective agreement as well as ILO Convention 137 that has also been treated with contempt.

Currently, there are only two companies in Oslo using dockers to load and unload ships. This means that the dockers are illegally locked out from between 90 and 95% of their work in the port of Oslo.

Both Yilport and NHO’s member companies in the port of Oslo are undermining the Norwegian model and are using unacceptable and anti-union practices to get rid of the registered dockers.

• The dockers in Oslo are fighting for a collective bargaining agreement and trade union rights

• The dockers are fighting so that a unionised workforce with collective bargaining agreements and secure employment is not replaced by a system of casual labour

• The dockers are fighting against social dumping in the port of Oslo

• The dockers are fighting a battle that involves the whole of the LO (national trade union body) and the rest of the Norwegian trade union movement.

The Port Authority in Oslo has also been helping Yilport avoid the collective agreement. The Port Authority is also supporting NHO and seven member companies in the port that are not using the dockers despite their collective agreement being valid until April 2016.

The Port Director and Chair of the Board at the port of Oslo is doing all they can to undermine ILO Convention 137 that gives the dockers the exclusive right to load and unload ships. ILO Convention 137 was ratified in Norway in 1974 after it was adopted by the International Labour Organisation, an arm of the UN, the year before. The Convention’s Article 3, point 2, clearly states that: “Registered dock workers shall have priority in the allocation of port work.”

The port of Oslo is owned by the local Council and all rules and regulations adopted by the Council also apply to the port. The Council elections in September led to a political shift in Oslo and we are happy that the new majority of Labour, Socialist Left, Green and Red parties have agreed that the port of Oslo will be operated according to ILO Convention 137. We expect the Port Authority to adopt changes that reflect decision quickly.

THE NTF DOCKERS BRANCH IN THE PORT OF OSLO INVITES YOU TO A DAY OF SOLIDARITY ON 4TH DECEMBER! WE URGE UNIONS TO BRING BANNERS.