The Norwegian Seafarers' Union, NSU, (, NSF) is a

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

representing sailors in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The union was established 25 September 1910, as the Norwegian Sailors' and Firemen's Union (Norsk Matros- og Fyrbøter-Union), and immediately affiliated to the

Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (, LO) is a national trade union center, decidedly the largest and probably the most influential umbrella organization of labour unions in Norway. The 21 national unions affiliated to the LO have almo ...

. In 1933, it merged with the Norwegian Stewards' and Cooks' Union, and adopted its current name. The English translation was gradually changed over several years around 2000 from Norwegian Seamen's Union. The change came in order to emphasise NSU's international work for equal opportunities regardless of gender. The NSU is open for all categories of seafarers from Apprentice Seafarer to Master, but mainly organize all groups of ratings both on deck and in engine, the catering personnel, and some groups of officers like the Steward and the Chief Electrician. The NSU has members sailing both worldwide and domestic, amongst others in cruise, ferries, oil-related offshore/supply, aboard the deep sea fishing fleet and aboard local freighters. The union has 10,500 members, of which 9,000 are working members. Additional 35,000 non-domicile seafarers are covered by

collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and labour rights, rights for ...

agreements (CBA) negotiated with NSU as either the only employee part or being employee part as one of several cooperating unions. When cooperating internationally with other unions on CBAs the NSU operates through formalized partnerships with other seafarers' unions affiliated with the

International Transport Workers' Federation The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is a democratic global union federation of transport workers' trade unions, founded in 1896. In 2017 the ITF had 677 member organizations in 149 countries, representing a combined membership o ...

(ITF), usually the national seafarers' union(s) of the concerned seafarers' home country. These international CBAs are usually covering seafarers working on ships under

Flag of convenience Flag of convenience (FOC) refers to a business practice whereby a ship's owners Ship registration, register a Merchant vessel, merchant ship in a ship register of a country other than that of the ship's owners, and the ship flies the civil ens ...

(FOC) as defined by the ITF, or on ships in the Norwegian International Ship Register (NIS), where Norwegian law allows for non-domicile seafarers employed on local employment conditions (usually with much lower wages) of the seafarers' home country. Internationally, the NSU is affiliated with the Nordic Transport Workers' Federation, the European Transport Workers' Federation and the ITF. The NSU shares its headquarters with the Norwegian Maritime Officers' Association and the Norwegian Union of Marine Engineers in Oslo. The three unions jointly publish the ''Maritim Logg'' magazine, and operate closely together, as the Norwegian Maritime Unions (Sjømannsorganisasjonene i Norge).

Presidents

* 1910–1920 Gerhardt Gulbrandsen * 1920–1936 Anders Birkeland * 1936–1958 Ingvald Haugen * 1958–1966 Gunvald Hauge * 1966–1972 Olaf Karling * 1972–1988

Henrik Aasarød Henrik is a male given name of Germanic origin, primarily used in Scandinavia, Finland, Estonia, Hungary and Slovenia. In Poland, the name is spelt Henryk but pronounced similarly. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Heiki (Estoni ...

* 1988–1993 Edvin Ramsvik * 1993–1994 Olav Bjørklund * 1994–2006 Erik Bratvold * 2006–2014 Jacqueline Smith * 2014–2022 Johnny Hansen * 2022- Kurt Inge Angell

References

External links

Norsk Sjømannsforbund
official Norwegian language site.
Norwegian Seafarers' Union
official English language site. Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions Trade unions established in 1910 International Transport Workers' Federation Seafarers' trade unions 1910 establishments in Norway {{Europe-trade-union-stub