Comparing manufacturing, construction and newspapers in Norway, this article analyses how industry and occupational differences affect management–trade union cooperation and union influence during labour adjustments. While manufacturing and construction companies, to some extent, lean on temporary layoff measures and dismissal regulations anchored in national law and in collective agreements, the newspaper cases apply measures outside the scope of dismissal regulations and the general regulatory system. Conditioned by national institutions and regulative constraints the different product market, industry norms, occupational structure and labour market facing the actors in the newspaper companies, the unions there were more influential and other measures such as severance packages were more used.