Staff at airport duty free shops across several key Norwegian airports went on strike from midnight on Monday – with operator, Travel Retail Norway (owned by Gebr. Heinemann and Norse-Trade) most affected. Norway’s Airport Retail Group has also been hit by the walkout.

 

However, while there is no end-date for the strike, the effect on sales at TRN – Heinemann’s biggest revenue engine in Europe – is expected to be minimal, TRBusiness was told by the regional duty free and travel retailer.

 

The strike has affected TRN at four locations including the core airports of Oslo Gardermoen, Bergen and Stavanger, with 259 retail staff currently not working. This is 22.5% of TRN’s 1,150 workforce which is more than one in five.

 

In total the number of striking retail employees – who are represented by the labour union, Luftfartens Funksjonærforening (LFF) – is 311. LFF is in ongoing talks with Virke, Norway’s Enterprise Federation, about worker rights to strike at both local negotiation and central negotiation levels. TRN is not directly involved in these negotiations.

 

Håkon Fjeld-Hansen (left) Managing Director of Travel Retail Norway, tells TRBusiness: “We still have 900 staff in our shops and the effect of the strike is minimal so far… it has effectively meant fewer people on the sales floor. All our stores remain open and we are keeping the wheels of the business running.”

 

He adds: “We are sorry that we are in this situation, especially as this is not a strike between Travel Retail Norway and our employees, but a conflict between Virke and LFF.”

 

At Oslo Airport, the airport operator Avinor says that there has been no impact from the strike. Press spokesperson Lasse André Vangstein (right) comments: “All the stores are operating and the biggest problem we might expect is extra queuing at the tills.”