The 3,800 drivers go on strike from six o’clock on Sunday morning.
Yrkestrafikkforbundet, Fellesforbundet, Norsk Jernbaneforbund and Fagforbundet believe that employers have shown a reluctance to meet them.
– Unfortunately, we have had to go on strike, because the employer has not been willing to meet us at all, neither on salary or other demands, says union leader in the Professional Traffic Association Jim Klungnes at the press conference Sunday morning.
See the entire press conference at the top of the case.
Klungnes points out that the wage development for bus drivers has lagged behind several years.
– We have an agreement with the employer that the bus drivers will have a salary on an equal footing with industrial workers’ salaries. The offer we received went in the opposite direction. It’s a breach of promise.
Klungnes believes that the employers have used the corona pandemic as a pretext in the negotiations.
– The bus companies are not in any crisis and almost no drivers have been laid off. Nevertheless, the drivers will once again have to settle for crumbs. We do not find ourselves in that, he told NTB.
During the press conference, he also points out another point related to the strike.
– You did not want to set aside the necessary time for the security check. It can not be something the bus driver does in his spare time, he says.
Klungnes says they will ask the employer to think about, and come up with an acceptable offer, so that the strike can be ended quickly.
– As the situation was, we had no other choice. We had to go on strike, he says.
– Very high demands
– The employee side came to mediation with very high demands, which we unfortunately did not have the opportunity to meet, says CEO Jon H. Stordrange in NHO Transport.
He believes that fewer travelers and reduced ticket revenues have led to a difficult and uncertain situation.
– The most important thing for us is to avoid redundancies, secure jobs and maintain a good bus service for passengers. Therefore, we do not have the opportunity to give more than what other groups have received, says Stordrange.
Ombudsman Mats Wilhelm Ruland says that the distance between the parties was so great that he could not present any proposal for a solution.
– There was some movement between the parties, but not enough for an agreement to be reached, he says.
Can be expanded
In the first strike, 3,800 bus drivers were taken out in Oslo and Viken, of which about half are organized in the Professional Traffic Association.
Federal Secretary of the Fellesforbundet Dag Einar Sivertsen warns that the strike may be extended.
– We will probably soon experience an extension of the strike in the country. If it is the case that we have to take that step, we have between 10,000 and 12,000 bus drivers who are ready to take on the fight for fair conditions, says Sivertsen.
