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10 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 54/2001
A US employers' organisation is threatening to boycott Norway.
At issue is the plan by Norwegian oil union NOPEF to black the shipping provider Trico Supply ASA unless Trico's parent company in the US gives an assurance that it will respect American workers' right to organise and to bargain collectively.
Now, the President of Norway's trade union federation LO has received a threatening letter from Robert Alario, President of the Offshore Marine Service Association. The OMSA is an association of US companies that contract out services to the offshore oil and gas industry.
Alario tells LO President Gerd Liv Valla that, if Trico fails to obtain contracts in Norway as a result of a NOPEF boycott, then "we will have to inform the US offshore industry that Norway does not take into consideration US Acts, custom and culture. We will be forced to call on our members to be careful with doing business in Norway."
"This is a threat," commented NOPEF President Leif Sande, "and we cannot accept that a US employers' association threatens the industry of another country because the employers in the US do not manage to come to terms with their own trade union movement."
OMSA's ultimatum to a whole country should perhaps be taken with several pinches of sea salt, but it does shed a very crude light on employer attitudes in America's offshore marine services.
Sande called attention to OMSA's website.
Not a site for sore eyes. It is, the Norwegian union leader says, "horrible reading".
As indeed it is. And no page more so than a recent, now hidden, little piece headed Slow, but Sure?
Penned by Alario himself, it gets straight to the point: "For over two years, OMSA and its members have worked hard and steadily to design and develop a solid and successful strategy to prevent unions from penetrating our industry. So far, so good!"
So far so bad for OMSA-affiliated Trico, which has been desperately trying to convince Norwegians that it recognises US workers' right to join a union.
But Alario is just getting into his stride. Onward and upward he marches, merrily shooting his member company in both feet. On the US unions' organising drives, he believes that "we have been and continue to be largely successful against such an aggressive well-financed machine." This, he enthuses, "can and should give us confidence that we are beating them, that we can beat them again, and that we will, finally, beat them in the end." Employers are, however, sternly warned against complacency: "This fight is not over. There is much more to be done."
For Alario's sense of mission reaches far beyond a few boats and choppers: "The fight is for everyone - offshore drilling contractors, offshore diving and construction contractors, seismic, well servicing, contractors - everyone - not just helicopter or vessel operators. Surprisingly, other sectors of our industry and our suppliers have been relatively slow to fully appreciate and act on the threat posed by these unions to all of us, although we have seen signs, recently, that we and others have been making at least a slight dent in the general apathy that has frustrated us mightily for two years."
There is much more in similar vein. If nothing else, the piece gives some deep insights into Alario's state of mind. He describes union organising drives as "infiltration of companies under attack" and warns other employers that American unions are "working below industry radar".
All of which explains why US mariners face a tough task in organising offshore services - and why NOPEF is so keen to help them.
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 is lending global support to the campaign. There have already been some successes in persuading Norwegian-based oil companies to review their relations with Trico, and the case has also been raised in the Norwegian parliament.
At issue is the plan by Norwegian oil union NOPEF to black the shipping provider Trico Supply ASA unless Trico's parent company in the US gives an assurance that it will respect American workers' right to organise and to bargain collectively.
Now, the President of Norway's trade union federation LO has received a threatening letter from Robert Alario, President of the Offshore Marine Service Association. The OMSA is an association of US companies that contract out services to the offshore oil and gas industry.
Alario tells LO President Gerd Liv Valla that, if Trico fails to obtain contracts in Norway as a result of a NOPEF boycott, then "we will have to inform the US offshore industry that Norway does not take into consideration US Acts, custom and culture. We will be forced to call on our members to be careful with doing business in Norway."
"This is a threat," commented NOPEF President Leif Sande, "and we cannot accept that a US employers' association threatens the industry of another country because the employers in the US do not manage to come to terms with their own trade union movement."
OMSA's ultimatum to a whole country should perhaps be taken with several pinches of sea salt, but it does shed a very crude light on employer attitudes in America's offshore marine services.
Sande called attention to OMSA's website.
Not a site for sore eyes. It is, the Norwegian union leader says, "horrible reading".
As indeed it is. And no page more so than a recent, now hidden, little piece headed Slow, but Sure?
Penned by Alario himself, it gets straight to the point: "For over two years, OMSA and its members have worked hard and steadily to design and develop a solid and successful strategy to prevent unions from penetrating our industry. So far, so good!"
So far so bad for OMSA-affiliated Trico, which has been desperately trying to convince Norwegians that it recognises US workers' right to join a union.
But Alario is just getting into his stride. Onward and upward he marches, merrily shooting his member company in both feet. On the US unions' organising drives, he believes that "we have been and continue to be largely successful against such an aggressive well-financed machine." This, he enthuses, "can and should give us confidence that we are beating them, that we can beat them again, and that we will, finally, beat them in the end." Employers are, however, sternly warned against complacency: "This fight is not over. There is much more to be done."
For Alario's sense of mission reaches far beyond a few boats and choppers: "The fight is for everyone - offshore drilling contractors, offshore diving and construction contractors, seismic, well servicing, contractors - everyone - not just helicopter or vessel operators. Surprisingly, other sectors of our industry and our suppliers have been relatively slow to fully appreciate and act on the threat posed by these unions to all of us, although we have seen signs, recently, that we and others have been making at least a slight dent in the general apathy that has frustrated us mightily for two years."
There is much more in similar vein. If nothing else, the piece gives some deep insights into Alario's state of mind. He describes union organising drives as "infiltration of companies under attack" and warns other employers that American unions are "working below industry radar".
All of which explains why US mariners face a tough task in organising offshore services - and why NOPEF is so keen to help them.
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 is lending global support to the campaign. There have already been some successes in persuading Norwegian-based oil companies to review their relations with Trico, and the case has also been raised in the Norwegian parliament.