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10 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 65/2001
America's Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA) faces a major split.
Member company Transocean Sedco Forex has walked out over a recent OMSA threat to boycott the whole of Norway.
In a letter to OMSA President Robert Alario, Transocean's Vice-President Eric B. Brown demanded the immediate removal of its subsidiary Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc. from the association's membership rolls.
The OMSA is a grouping of US companies that contract out shipping and other services to the offshore oil and gas industry.
Last month, OMSA President Robert Alario wrote to Gerd Liv Valla, President of the Norwegian trade union confederation LO. Alario took issue with a 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. The US company, Trico Marine Services, is an OMSA member.
Alario told Valla that, if Trico failed 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 at the time, "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."
Transocean also operates in Norway, and NOPEF's branch in the company took the issue up with the local Transocean management in Stavanger. Brown's resignation letter to the OMSA followed swiftly, and was announced by NOPEF today.
Brown also wrote to Arild Theimann, the chairman of the NOPEF branch at Transocean. Brown told him that the OMSA had not consulted its member companies before sending its threatening letter. He emphasised that Transocean in no way supports the OMSA stand, and is fully committed to operating in Norway.
The split in the OMSA is significant, because the association's President Robert Alario is outspokenly anti-union (see ICEM UPDATE 54/2001 for more details).
"This is a very important signal," commented NOPEF Secretary Jarle Vines today. "I hope that other OMSA member companies operating on the Norwegian shelf will follow Transocean's example."
NOPEF has been running a major campaign of solidarity with US mariners who have so far been prevented from organising trade union representation within Trico's US operations. In Norway, the company respects the right to organise.
The campaign scored a first breakthrough last month when Trico promised NOPEF that it would send all its American employees a letter giving the names and addresses of relevant trade unions (details in ICEM UPDATE 56/2001). NOPEF's Leif Sande called this pledge "a step in the right direction" and added that "as long as we experience progress in what we see as negotiations, we will not start a boycott."
The NOPEF campaign is being supported by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). NOPEF is affiliated to both these internationals.
Member company Transocean Sedco Forex has walked out over a recent OMSA threat to boycott the whole of Norway.
In a letter to OMSA President Robert Alario, Transocean's Vice-President Eric B. Brown demanded the immediate removal of its subsidiary Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc. from the association's membership rolls.
The OMSA is a grouping of US companies that contract out shipping and other services to the offshore oil and gas industry.
Last month, OMSA President Robert Alario wrote to Gerd Liv Valla, President of the Norwegian trade union confederation LO. Alario took issue with a 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. The US company, Trico Marine Services, is an OMSA member.
Alario told Valla that, if Trico failed 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 at the time, "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."
Transocean also operates in Norway, and NOPEF's branch in the company took the issue up with the local Transocean management in Stavanger. Brown's resignation letter to the OMSA followed swiftly, and was announced by NOPEF today.
Brown also wrote to Arild Theimann, the chairman of the NOPEF branch at Transocean. Brown told him that the OMSA had not consulted its member companies before sending its threatening letter. He emphasised that Transocean in no way supports the OMSA stand, and is fully committed to operating in Norway.
The split in the OMSA is significant, because the association's President Robert Alario is outspokenly anti-union (see ICEM UPDATE 54/2001 for more details).
"This is a very important signal," commented NOPEF Secretary Jarle Vines today. "I hope that other OMSA member companies operating on the Norwegian shelf will follow Transocean's example."
NOPEF has been running a major campaign of solidarity with US mariners who have so far been prevented from organising trade union representation within Trico's US operations. In Norway, the company respects the right to organise.
The campaign scored a first breakthrough last month when Trico promised NOPEF that it would send all its American employees a letter giving the names and addresses of relevant trade unions (details in ICEM UPDATE 56/2001). NOPEF's Leif Sande called this pledge "a step in the right direction" and added that "as long as we experience progress in what we see as negotiations, we will not start a boycott."
The NOPEF campaign is being supported by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). NOPEF is affiliated to both these internationals.