Teachers extend Norway’s longest teacher strike to 121 days

The teacher strike at Bergen Kristne Grunnskole has lasted 121 days, making it the longest teacher strike in Norway’s history, NRK reports.

Twelve teachers are striking because the Christian school in Bergen has refused to sign a collective agreement. The school’s management says a local agreement would be the best solution.

Teaching resumed after the summer holiday, but the teachers involved in the dispute remain on strike. The conflict has also developed into a disagreement over values, according to the parties.

During the strike, the school has hired new teachers. Steinar Vegsund Strømsli, county leader of the Education Union in Vestland, says this has made the strike ineffective and represents the worst strike-breaking since the Second World War.

“It is particularly difficult to put on the vests when we know the school is fully staffed. The strike no longer has any effect,” Strømsli said.

School board chairman Olav Sollid rejects the accusation of strike-breaking. He says the school has the right to create new timetables for a new academic year because several employees have resigned or taken parental leave.

“It has nothing to do with the strike,” Sollid said, adding that none of the striking teachers had been replaced. He said the school had operated for several months without teaching and that pupils had missed lessons during the strike.

Sollid said many teachers also did not want a collective agreement with the Education Union. The school believes its local agreement provides the best conditions for all employees and says the union has not always been trustworthy.

Strømsli said it was normal for employers and employee organisations to have different political views and values. He compared the situation with the relationship between the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions and the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise, which share neither politics nor values but still negotiate collective agreements and cooperate.

Some pupils hugged the striking teachers as they entered the school on Thursday morning. Silje Hammersland, one of the striking teachers, said it was good to see them but difficult not to be with them in the classroom.

Neither side has withdrawn its demands after 121 days. The Education Union says it has no plans to end the strike soon.

“We have plenty of money in reserve. We can strike for 200 years,” Strømsli said.

Sollid said it was difficult to predict when the strike would end, but that he hoped it would be over the following day.

The Education Union says the dispute has exposed a serious gap in the legally protected right to strike and wants the Norwegian Parliament to become involved.