By Jørn Erik Bøe
They will get an all time high day rate for the drilling vessel Stena Don with the Scottish oil company Cairn Energy for drilling west of Greenland, but the profit from this contract simply isn’t high enough for the merry owners in Gothenburg. Instead of keeping the experienced crew with reasonable wages and working conditions, they have decided to replace junior crew with low cost labor from the Far East. This shows the true nature of Stena Drilling!
For 10 years I have personally experienced the non acceptable attitude within the company, but we have by using our force as a strong union managed to press the company to act in compliance with established standards. Today I can only confirm what philosophers always have stated: You can make people change their behavior but you can’t change their attitude! Now they show their innermost established self. They don’t care about their employees! In the middle of a financial crisis with high unemployment they throw their personnel out for the sake of a not needed short term limited financial gain.
Their carelessness tells us that we here in Norway have to ask our self: Did they actually ever deserve to be given the benefit of making money in Norway? And further: What have they done to deserve getting back in to Norway? It simply isn’t enough not to break the law, you also have to act in accordance with established culture and traditions to be given the honor of being respected and accepted!
We have no knowledge when it comes to the oil company Cairn Energy, but if they either encourage or accept the behavior Stena Drilling is exposing, we must also ask our self: Do they deserve to be welcomed to Norwegian waters?
