Trico: First Breakthrough for Norwegian/US Solidarity

Trico Marine Services Inc. has promised to send all its American employees a letter giving the names and addresses of relevant trade unions.

A letter to that effect from Trico USA was received today by NOPEF, the Norwegian oil workers' union. NOPEF has been threatening to black Trico's Norwegian subsidiary unless the parent company in the US respects American workers' right to organise.

In both America and Norway, Trico supplies shipping services to the offshore oil and gas industry. But while the company respects labour rights in Norway, it has been strongly anti-union in the US.

So Trico's change of tack is seen as a first breakthrough in the NOPEF campaign to help organising efforts by the company's American workers.

Today's promise is "a step in the right direction," NOPEF President Leif Sande said. "As long as we experience progress in what we see as negotiations, we will not start a boycott."

NOPEF's lawyer will answer the letter from Trico USA this week.

This afternoon, NOPEF leaders met Norway's Minister of Trade and Industry, Grete Knudsen. She had earlier held meetings with employees of Trico Norway, and will be having talks with the Norwegian Seamen's Union later this evening. Knudsen sympathises with the reasons for NOPEF's boycott notice. She is, however, concerned about the jobs in Trico Norway. She expressed the hope that the dialogue between Trico USA and NOPEF will result in a solution.

NOPEF is affiliated both to the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which has been lending global support to the campaign.