1.
L.s. Oslo Main Post Office yard, usually bustling at 16 hours looks idle with a few postmen carrying mailbags into post office.


2.
m.s. post office yard. Outgoing parcels being stacked onto mailtruck by lone postman.


3.
m.s. int. mailchute jammed with parcels as superintendent package master: Harry Anderson sorts mailparcels.


4.
Harry 63 and veteran of Oslo Postoffice has never seen chutes jammed so solid in 43 years service as postman.


5.
l.s. Departing mail parcel hall jammed with mailbags as package trolley passes.


6.
l.s. pan Corridor of departing parcels section. Postman sorting mailbags literary drowning between towering mountains of mailbags.


7.
m.s. " Retake " " " " " " " " ". (best shot.)


8.
m.s. " letterdepartment. letterlift ejects incoming letters from street postboxes pan to sorting table, with afternoonshift at work.


9.
c.u. sorting table, letters spilling over table.


10.
l.s. pan. Departing airmail for abroad. Blue nylon airmailbags with unsorted letters leftover since yesterday, pan along lettertrays in stacked 5 high awaiting to be sorted by sorters working in background.


11.
l.s. pan along mail sorters going of afternoonshift, usually they stay overtime along with nightshift to clear all of the days mail.




Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A long-standing dispute between the Government and Postal workers in Oslo, culminated this week (ending Nov 30th) in a go-slow and 'no-overtime' strike of the post office departments.

The dispute concerns an, as yet unset, claim for higher wages to meet the cost of living in Oslo which, say the postal workers, is far higher than the rest of Norway.

At the best of times the Oslo Main Post Office is understaffed and only by working three shifts around the clock can it deal with the tremendous column of mail.

Now, with the strikes in full (slow) motion letters and parcels by the bag are piling up in the corridors. If the strike continues -- particularly during the Christmas rush -- the whole of Norway's postal system is in danger of complete breakdown.