Press "Enter" to skip to content

Strikers planning to put work in a brief deep freeze

0 0
Read Time:1 Minute, 16 Second

It may be -20C and gusty, but a group of folks standing around outside will be burning hot.

Dozens of Longyearbyen residents are planning to gather in the town’s central square at 2 p.m. Wednesday as part of a nationwide strike protesting the Conservative-led government’s proposed changes to Norway’s Working Environment Act. The two-hour work stoppage is expected to significantly affect flights, public transport and kindergartens on the mainland, but the impact in Svalbard will probably be considerably less noticeable.

“There are no scheduled flights to the mainland tomorrow since it’s Wednesday,” said Svalbard Airport Manager Morten Ulsnes. “We only have the mail plane, which departs before the strike.”

A flight carrying workers from Longyearbyen to Svea scheduled to take off about half-an-hour before the end of the strike will be slightly delayed, Ulsnes said.

The strikers themselves may be less noticeable as well as a cold spell has some people planning to participate acknowledging they’re unlikely to remain clustered in the square for two hours. More than 50 people had indicated on a Facebook page for the event they’re planning to attend as of late Tuesday afternoon.

The strikers are concerned the proposed changes will result in more temporary employees working longer hours, more mandatory hours for permanent workers and more work on Sundays. Labor organizations participating in the strike include the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, the Confederation of Vocational Unions, and the Confederation of Unions for Universities College Graduates. The associations represent 1.5 million workers.

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %

Average Rating

5 Star
0%
4 Star
0%
3 Star
0%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%