(Oslo 20 May 2010) The Norwegian Transport Workers’ Union (NTF) has announced that it will escalate its strike as from the start of working hours on Tuesday 25 May 2010.
The transport strike started on Saturday 15 May when the mediation between the Norwegian Transport Workers’ Union (NTF) and the Norwegian Logistics and Freight Association (LTL) broke down. Since then, some of the transport industry has been on strike.
The announced escalation will lead to the entire Norwegian transport industry being affected, including most of Bring Logistics and Bring Frigoscandias terminals in Norway. The escalation means that there will to a large extent be no opportunity to forward goods that must be dealt with at one of the affected terminals. Direct transport will take place more or less as normal.
More temporary lay-offs
Additional employees will have to be temporarily laid off on Tuesday and for as long as the conflict lasts.
“At Bring, we are particularly concerned about the customers and employees that are affected by this industrial dispute and hope it will be settled soon,” says Bring Logistics’ SVP Erik Johannessen.
The affected terminals
The following Bring terminals will be affected as from Tuesday 25 May (terminals in the list below with no comments in brackets after them are either closed or will be closed as from Tuesday 25 May):
Bring Frigoscandia AS, Skårer, outside Oslo (freezer and cooling facilities closed, fish terminal open but with reduced capacity)
Bring Frigoscandia AS, Trondheim (operations with reduced capacity)
Bring Frigoscandia AS, Bergen Dept., Lørenskog,
outside Oslo (closed as from Tuesday)
Bring Frigoscandia Warehouse AS, Larvik (probably slightly reduced capacity –
update on Friday)
Bring Frigoscandia Warehouse AS, Rudshøgda (probably closed as from Tuesday)
Bring Frigoscandia
Warehouse, Rud, outside Oslo (more or less normal operations)
Bring Logistics AS, Karihaugen, outside Oslo
Bring Logistics AS, Kristiansand
Bring Logistics AS, Bodø
Bring Logistics AS, Bergen
Bring Logistics AS,
Haugesund
Bring Logistics AS, Sandefjord
Bring Logistics AS, Tananger, outside Stavanger
Bring Logistics AS,
Oslo
Bring Logistics AS, Trondheim
Bring Logistics AS, Ålesund
Bring Logistics AS, Verdal
Bring Logistics
AS, Harstad
Services not affected by the strike
The strike does not directly affect terminals and the transport of goods outside Norway, other than part load shipments to and from Norway.
Bring Logistics’ terminals in Drammen, Hønefoss, Kongsvinger, Østfold, Molde, Førde and Sogndal are not affected. Distribution services will be maintained in Alta and Hammerfest.
Other parts of Bring’s operations, such as Express, Parcels and Warehousing Services, will continue to function as normal.
The transport between oil bases (Oil Express) will take place more or less as usual.
Company Parcels (Bedriftspakken) and Service Parcels (Servicepakken) will be forwarded as normal.
The extent of the strike
The strike is now being widened to affect all the forwarding companies that are bound by the Forwarding Agents’ Tariff throughout Norway.
This escalation affects a total of 491 employees at 68 companies that are bound by the Forwarding Agents’ Tariff and 291 employees at 16 Schenker terminals. A total of 1,650 terminal employees are being taken out on strike so far.
It also means that the strike will to a greater extent create problems for maritime transport, since the Norwegian Transport Workers’ Union (NTF) has announced that a number of terminal employees who work in harbour areas will be taken out on strike. In addition, the strike will lead to much greater problems for domestic transport and distribution using motor vehicles.
Keep informed
Your contact person, your local Bring office or Bring’s customer service centre - phone +47 04055 – will inform you of the effects on the services that your company buys from Bring.
Registered customers can also obtain operational updates by logging into ”MinE Nasjonalt”
Please visit Norway Post’s and Bring’s websites (www.postennorge.no, www.bring.com/logistics and http://www.bring.com/frigoscandia) for updates on the operational consequences of the strike.