Big win for elevator workers at Orona in Norway

Norwegian elevator workers have won their fight for a collective agreement at the company Orona, the 5th largest elevator company in Europe. The 19 workers of the elevator constructors union returned to their job yesterday after eight weeks of strike.

Orona finally met with the union's demands to stop subcontracting workers with lower salaries for temporary work. Among the other demands was to educate all personnel into skilled elevator mechanics.

The workers are members of the Elevator Constructors Union which belongs to the Norwegian EL og IT Forbundet – Trade Union for Energy, Electrical Engineering, Telecommunications and IT.

“I am very happy that Orona´s management agreed upon the demands and I hope this could trigger more workers from Orona to take the fight for collective rights in their respective countries,” the union’s president Markus Hansen writes in an email to the BWI.

The union had feared that Orona through subcontracting was exploiting migrant workers for less pay than regular workers. 

“We congratulate the Norwegian elevator workers and their union, the Norwegian EL og IT Forbundet, for this big win.. Orona is a global company and we hope that this can inspire workers and management to reach similar agreements in the rest of the world,” said Ambet Yuson, general secretary of the BWI.