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12 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 39/1998
The Danish government today said it will legislate to end a dispute that is threatening to bring the country to a standstill.
As the nationwide industrial dispute entered its tenth day, the employers were today still refusing to bargain in good faith. In fact, they broadened and hardened the conflict this Monday by locking out some 30,000 shop and supermarket staff and around 15,000 electricians.
Now, Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen says he will table legislation on Thursday to force an end to the dispute. If adopted, the law will take effect at midnight on Thursday. Rasmussen expects to have a solid parliamentary majority for the measure.
More than 200,000 workers in Danish manufacturing and process industries, and a similar number in the transport and building sectors, have been on strike since 27 April. Prominent among the unions involved are affiliates of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
Bargaining across a wide range of sectors broke down at the end of last month after union members voted to reject a mediated proposal. The Danish national trade union federation LO had been trying to get talks going again, but a brief meeting with the employers' federation DA yesterday produced no results and LO President Hans Jensen said no date had been set for further talks.
Earlier yesterday, LO had turned down the employers' "final offer" of one day's extra holiday a year, plus one more for workers with children. The employers had insisted that all costs for the extra days off should be borne by the workers themselves, by cutting back on already agreed improvements in pension entitlements.
"No extra costs" has become something of a battle cry for the Danish employers. But they are certainly not short of money, as witness Denmark's booming economy and the very healthy results posted by the main companies.
"We don't believe this was a serious offer," commented Poul Erik Skov Christensen, President of the ICEM-affiliated general workers' union SiD. "It would be wholly unrealistic to think that our members would agree to pay for extra holidays themselves. There will have to be a significantly improved offer on holidays, in comparison to the mediated proposal that the members previously rejected."
He was speaking before the Prime Minister's announcement. In fact, the new legislation is likely to go some way towards meeting the unions' demand for more time off, which has become the main focus of the dispute. LO had called for two extra days per year, plus two more for workers with children, but the DA flatly refused this compromise.
Certainly, the dispute has hit home. But, without compromising the effectiveness of their action, unions have been carefully making case-by-case exemptions in a number of areas, including fuel supplies to emergency and social services, distribution of essential medicines and the provision of hospital cleaning and laundry services where these are clearly vital to the maintenance of hygiene. Sections of the conservative media have been trying to whip up hysteria about shortages, the Danish unions report, but in fact the exemption system has been working well. The unions also confirm that fodder is getting through to Denmark's farms. Some press reports had suggested that farm animals were starving.
An SiD local office burnt to the ground on Saturday following an explosion. Police and fire service investigators said yesterday that they had not ruled out arson as the cause of the blaze. A criminal investigation has now been launched.
As the nationwide industrial dispute entered its tenth day, the employers were today still refusing to bargain in good faith. In fact, they broadened and hardened the conflict this Monday by locking out some 30,000 shop and supermarket staff and around 15,000 electricians.
Now, Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen says he will table legislation on Thursday to force an end to the dispute. If adopted, the law will take effect at midnight on Thursday. Rasmussen expects to have a solid parliamentary majority for the measure.
More than 200,000 workers in Danish manufacturing and process industries, and a similar number in the transport and building sectors, have been on strike since 27 April. Prominent among the unions involved are affiliates of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
Bargaining across a wide range of sectors broke down at the end of last month after union members voted to reject a mediated proposal. The Danish national trade union federation LO had been trying to get talks going again, but a brief meeting with the employers' federation DA yesterday produced no results and LO President Hans Jensen said no date had been set for further talks.
Earlier yesterday, LO had turned down the employers' "final offer" of one day's extra holiday a year, plus one more for workers with children. The employers had insisted that all costs for the extra days off should be borne by the workers themselves, by cutting back on already agreed improvements in pension entitlements.
"No extra costs" has become something of a battle cry for the Danish employers. But they are certainly not short of money, as witness Denmark's booming economy and the very healthy results posted by the main companies.
"We don't believe this was a serious offer," commented Poul Erik Skov Christensen, President of the ICEM-affiliated general workers' union SiD. "It would be wholly unrealistic to think that our members would agree to pay for extra holidays themselves. There will have to be a significantly improved offer on holidays, in comparison to the mediated proposal that the members previously rejected."
He was speaking before the Prime Minister's announcement. In fact, the new legislation is likely to go some way towards meeting the unions' demand for more time off, which has become the main focus of the dispute. LO had called for two extra days per year, plus two more for workers with children, but the DA flatly refused this compromise.
Certainly, the dispute has hit home. But, without compromising the effectiveness of their action, unions have been carefully making case-by-case exemptions in a number of areas, including fuel supplies to emergency and social services, distribution of essential medicines and the provision of hospital cleaning and laundry services where these are clearly vital to the maintenance of hygiene. Sections of the conservative media have been trying to whip up hysteria about shortages, the Danish unions report, but in fact the exemption system has been working well. The unions also confirm that fodder is getting through to Denmark's farms. Some press reports had suggested that farm animals were starving.
An SiD local office burnt to the ground on Saturday following an explosion. Police and fire service investigators said yesterday that they had not ruled out arson as the cause of the blaze. A criminal investigation has now been launched.