Norwegian oil workers shut down a chunk of the country’s production for 16 days in July over a pay dispute. With the summer over, further strikes are being discussed.
Being such a wealthy country, and with a robust social safety net, it does make one do a double-take when a strike in Norway is over pay. Is the case of the Norwegian oil workers a textbook study on how labour in the rich world is incentivising companies to deploy more technology in their production processes, thereby inadvertently making itself increasingly redundant?
First, to recap, Norway’s oil industry has been pushing the government to limit wage growth for ages, arguing that it’s hurting the country’s competitiveness. On Thursday, however, the government rejected the pleas arguing that Norway doesn’t necessarily want to compete — on labour costs, that is.
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