Close gas plants even if guards wanted to stay open – NRK Norway – Summary of news from different parts of the country

On Saturday the Nyhamna gas plant in More og Romsdal was closed. The reason was initially that four security guards working at the facility went on strike in connection with the escalation of the security guard strike.

According to Norsk Olje og Gass, operator Gassco was not granted a waiver from the security guard strike. And since the four guards were important to emergency preparedness at the facility, it was claimed that the terminal could not be open.

Now, however, the plant will be operational again tomorrow. This comes after Shell, which is responsible for emergency preparedness at the plant, has changed its mind.

– Shell has found a solution for emergency preparedness tasks that are handled responsibly with its own resources, writes the head of system operation at Gassco, Alfred Hansen, to NRK in an SMS.

NHO said no to dispensing

Closing could it would have been avoided if Gassco had been granted a waiver from the security strike.

Dispensation means that the striking organization allows the strikers to work. In that case, employers must also agree that a waiver can be granted.

But NHO Service og Handel said no.

– In this case, as in the others, we have considered it very carefully. What we have agreed to is a downsizing agreement with Shell. We do this because it is important with a proper facility closure, Executive Director Anne-Cecilie Kaltenborn at NHO Service og Handel told NRK today.

The guards wanted to keep the facility open

Closing the gas terminal is expensive. The plant is one of the largest gas terminals in Northern Europe and generates around NOK 100 million a day in revenue.

This is one of the reasons why the guards themselves wanted to grant a dispensation from the strike.

– We know from experience what it means to paralyze the oil and gas industry in Norway, so this time it was not our intention, says Brede Edvardsen, deputy leader of the Norwegian Workers’ Union.

In 2012, a strike on the Norwegian platform was greeted with a lockout notice from Norwegian Oil and Gas employers. The costs of closing virtually the entire Norwegian continental shelf would be formidable.

Therefore, the employees believed that Norsk Olje og Gass was speculating on a mandatory salary meeting. That was also the result before the lockout turned into something like that.

Conflict stuck

The Norwegian Workers’ Union guards have been on strike since September 15, according to the Ombudsman.

Last week, the Norwegian Trade Union Confederation made a new offer to employers. According to Fri Fagbevegelse, he had a framework within the front subject’s pay growth of 1.7 percent and a proposal for a solution to the NAF’s most important battle problem: the fixed salary.

The requirement is that security guards who work more than 20 percent of the positions must be paid a fixed salary and not be paid by the hour. Additionally, they proposed that security guards who work full-time full-time during the day should be entitled to time off on moving holidays.

NHO Service og Handel rejected the offer.