Founded 25 September 1910 Affiliation LO, ITF | Members 11,000 Office location Oslo, Norway | |
 | ||
Full name Norwegian Seafarers' Union, NSU Native name Norsk Sjømannsforbund, NSF | ||
The Norwegian Seafarers' Union (NSU) is a trade union in Norway. The union was established 25 September 1910 under the name Norsk Matros- og Fyrbøter-Union (Norwegian Sailor and Stoker Union). Current name was adapted 1933, though the use of the current 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 11,500 members, of which 10,000 are working members.
Additional 35,000 non-domicile seafarers are covered by collective bargaining 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 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 (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.
The Norwegian Seafarers' Union has been affiliated nationally with the LO from its founding in 1910. Internationally the NSU is affiliated with the Nordic Transport Workers' Federation, the ETF and the ITF. The NSU shares Main Office with the Norwegian Maritime Officers' Association and the Norwegian Union of Marine Engineers in Oslo. The three unions regularly operate closely together both in domestic matters and internationally as the Norwegian Maritime Unions (Sjømannsorganisasjonene i Norge).