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Nearly 3,000 more teachers to join strike in Norway 

Frazer Norwell
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Nearly 3,000 more teachers to join strike in Norway 
Some 3,000 more teachers in Norway will head out on strike. Pictured is a classroom. Photo by MChe Lee on Unsplash

The teachers’ strike in Norway will be ramped up significantly next week when almost 3,000 education professionals join industrial action.

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Some 3,00 teachers will join ongoing industrial action in the education sector from next Tuesday, trade union, the Education Association announced Wednesday.

“We will continue the strike until we find a better solution for the teachers,” Steffan Handal, head of the Education Association, said in the announcement. 

There are around 3,500 teachers in Norway already on strike. The strike began in June with a few dozen teachers in Bergen but escalated nationwide following the summer holidays in Norway. 

Handal said the number of staff being taken out on strike highlighted the seriousness of the situation. 

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Bergen will be the part of the country hardest hit when the strike escalates. Some 580 teachers employed by Bergen Municipality will strike next week. 

The escalation of the strike will take the total number of teachers striking in Bergen to almost 1,300. Bærum, Byrne and Trondheim will also see large numbers of teachers taken out on strike. 

Teachers are striking over wage growth in recent years. The decision to strike came following the collective bargaining agreement with the public sector with The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS). 

The public sector accepted KS’s offer as a whole, but teachers have decided to strike as they feel they’ve gotten a raw deal in the last few agreements. 

Industrial action is currently affecting over a dozen municipalities and all of the country’s counties except Oslo. 

In Norway, counties are responsible for funding high schools, while the local municipality funds other schools. This is why the strikes are spread across the county and municipal levels. 

An end to the strike doesn’t appear to be in sight, as KS has previously said that the money teachers are asking for isn’t there.

You can find a full list of schools affected by the strike here

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