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12 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 36/1998
Danish employers should now "broach the subject of a sixth week's annual holiday" as a way of relaunching the country's stalled bargaining process. The proposal came from a union leader as Denmark's massive industrial dispute entered its third day.
Some 400,000 Danish workers are on indefinite strike after union members voted to reject a mediated bargaining proposal covering a wide range of industries. Prominent among the unions involved are affiliates of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
Affected by the conflict are more than 200,000 workers in manufacturing and process industries, and a similar number in the transport and building sectors. The unions involved include the general workers' SiD and the women workers' KAD, both of which are affiliated at the global level to the ICEM.
Danish employers must now put something new on the bargaining table, SiD President Poul Erik Skov Christensen insists. "It would be illusory to think that the dispute can be resolved within the limits of the mediation proposal that was rejected by the membership." He suggests the employers should reopen the question of increasing annual leave entitlements from five weeks to six. This was one of the key labour demands that were not met in the mediation proposal.
At the request of the Danish national trade union federation LO, the SiD had put out new feelers to employers in its sector, but without any positive results. Talks should now be started at the level of the LO and the national employers' confederation DA, the SiD believes.
As the strike bites, the unions have made it clear that truly essential services will be maintained. Without compromising the effectiveness of their action, they are prepared to make 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.
At the same time, unions have warned that they will be maintaining their vigilance against strikebreaking. ISS, the cleaning and environmental services multinational, has been cited by the KAD union as one example of an (unsuccessful) attempt to bring in strikebreakers.
Some 400,000 Danish workers are on indefinite strike after union members voted to reject a mediated bargaining proposal covering a wide range of industries. Prominent among the unions involved are affiliates of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
Affected by the conflict are more than 200,000 workers in manufacturing and process industries, and a similar number in the transport and building sectors. The unions involved include the general workers' SiD and the women workers' KAD, both of which are affiliated at the global level to the ICEM.
Danish employers must now put something new on the bargaining table, SiD President Poul Erik Skov Christensen insists. "It would be illusory to think that the dispute can be resolved within the limits of the mediation proposal that was rejected by the membership." He suggests the employers should reopen the question of increasing annual leave entitlements from five weeks to six. This was one of the key labour demands that were not met in the mediation proposal.
At the request of the Danish national trade union federation LO, the SiD had put out new feelers to employers in its sector, but without any positive results. Talks should now be started at the level of the LO and the national employers' confederation DA, the SiD believes.
As the strike bites, the unions have made it clear that truly essential services will be maintained. Without compromising the effectiveness of their action, they are prepared to make 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.
At the same time, unions have warned that they will be maintaining their vigilance against strikebreaking. ISS, the cleaning and environmental services multinational, has been cited by the KAD union as one example of an (unsuccessful) attempt to bring in strikebreakers.