«Streik blir det ikke. Vi garanterer.»

SAS flygeledernes streik, initially planned for August 21st to 24th, has been cancelled according to editor Trygve Hegnar. Earlier this year, a similar agreement was reached with SAS, as well as with flight controllers and Avinor, says Hegnar. This was all just "teaching moments". The Norwegian model was supposed to fix the problem.

This leader article seems to have disappeared from the next issue of "What did I say?". Trygve Hegnar has compiled his leader articles in two large books titled "What did I say?" in two volumes. He has not emphasized a central point about wage disputes. There haven't been many strike days in Norway in recent years, but aviation has been turbulent since 2022, with significant labor conflicts involving flight engineers, SAS pilots, and cabin crew.

Twelve flight controllers were fired in the first strike action, and more cancellations have already been made. Flight controllers describe management as not listening. Union leader Anne Kari Bratten told TV2 that she "has never experienced such a thing". The cabin crew, a low-wage group organized through the strong union Funksforbundet, reached an agreement with SAS.

The Norwegian Flight Controller Association (NFF) is different; its 500 members belong to one of Norway's highest-paid professions with a median annual salary of 146,292 kroner in 2025, according to SSB's wage statistics. They are not affiliated with a larger union like LO, YS, or Unio. As a small but crucial profession, they have had the muscle to negotiate good wages.

Individually, they are not representative of the whole, unlike a trade union affiliated with a larger organization. The NFF negotiates for itself and its members. "The Norwegian model doesn't work," Hegnar wrote. The dispute was not about money but other issues, such as breaks, life stages, and parameters for instructor work. The problem is that the break was not about economics.

This negotiation has never dealt with economics; it has dealt with breaks, life stages, and parameters for instructor work. The critical issue is breaks. The NFF has long criticized the lack of "real breaks". A particular issue is when flight controllers are alone on duty during periods when the airport is closed for everything except critical traffic.

NFF challenged Avinor about this issue several years ago. The flight controllers lost in both legal proceedings. In the main case, all questions are up for negotiation, unlike the side cases, which only deal with wages. The most difficult issues are often something other than wages. An illustrative example is the wage dispute in the summer, where the most contentious issue between NHO and LO was the provision of sick leave.

Those who sit at the airport wondering what's happening should buy a newspaper to pass the time – it might be long.