Norway Warns Oil Dispute Ultimatums Won’t Be Tolerated

Norway’s government is following a last-minute intervention to halt the country’s longest-ever oil strike with a warning to the industry not to force ultimatums that risk cutting supply.

“I am not impressed by how the employers’ group chose to use the lockout weapon,” Labor Minister Hanne Bjurstroem said in an e-mailed reply to questions today. “It signals that they don’t take the extensive consequences of a complete shutdown of the Norwegian continental shelf seriously. In my view, this is not the best way to deal with a legal labor conflict.”