Social Partners
Articles on the Social Partners.
Unions in retreat across Europe
Trade unions have lost members and influence over the past 20 years in almost all European countries. High unemployment, an increasingly deregulated labour market and weaker safety nets makes many workers weary of putting their demands forwards and to become union members. Unions in several countries also criticise what they see as a relatively self-congratulatory Nordic model.
Emergency rescue plan for Denmark’s long-term unemployed
The debate over Danish unemployment benefit rules carries on despite political action.
Nordic opposition to minimum wage shows lack of solidarity?
Should we have a statutory minimum wage? Absolutely not say Nordic trade unions, and they’re usually backed by employers’ organisations. It’s an attitude people elsewhere in Europe find difficult to understand.
Nordic ministers want a more open working life
How do you open up the labour market for more people with disabilities? It is a hot topic. Despite crisis and unemployment taking hold, labour ministers keep their strategic focus on mobilising more people to join working life. They highlight the long-term need for labour and that all have the right to be fully part of working and social life. The challenge is to get working life partners to back their initiatives.
Loa Brynjulfsdottir wants to defend the collective agreement model
Loa Brynjulfsdottir is the new general secretary at the Council of Nordic Trade Unions, NFS. Her top priority is to further defend the Nordic collective agreement model. It is under pressure from the more regulations-based way in which labour market issues are dealt with within the EU.
British unions on the warpath
"This is just the beginning," said union leader Len McCluskey when nearly two million public sector workers joined the UK's largest strike in 30 years. On 30 November schools, hospitals, docks and airports were hit.
Trade unions and a new spirit of the times
Inspired by the Arab spring, protesters have been occupying streets and squares in the USA and in Europe. They have highlighted the big gap between the richest one percent and everybody else, even in Western countries. The Nordic region enjoys long traditions of cooperation on how social and working life should develop. But Nordic trade unions are loosing supporters. This could threaten their legitimacy and shift the balance which the Nordic model is based on.
Getting closer to members could secure union survival
Nordic trade unions must get closer to their members and provide a better service at a lower price. If not the Nordic labour market model will die, warn labour market experts.
”Change or die” - mobilising and modernising unions
From 2007 to 2011 Swedish trade unions lost 273,000 members. Worst hit was the Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and the lowest numbers of union membership was found among young people and people of foreign heritage. But unions are not passively watching the fall in membership numbers - on the contrary, they are mobilising to reach old and new members.
How do the unions handle the new debate on salary gaps?
Over the past decade the number of working days lost due to labour conflicts has been very low. Illegal industrial action has nearly disappeared altogether. Meanwhile the pay gap has widened considerably. But now there is fresh disquiet. How do unions deal with these new times?
Welfare state and social partners’ cooperation
Cooperation with the social partners is central when politicians in Norway and Denmark sit down to write new political programmes - be it Denmark’s new government programme or the programme for Norway’s 2012 presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Collective bargaining under pressure as union membership plummets
Danes - especially young men - abandon trade unions with record speed new figures show. Experts believe it can undermine the social partners’ self regulation - the so-called flexicurity model.
New Norwegian drive to find jobs for people with impaired work abilities
Organisations for people with disabilities along with the social partners didn’t hold back their praise when Norway’s Minister for Labour Hanne Bjurstrøm and Minister for Children, Equality and Social Inclusion Audun Lysbakken presented their ‘Job strategy for people with impaired work ability‘ during the presentation of Norway’s 2012 budget on 6 October.
Finland hunts for a new salary model
Finland’s social partners are desperately looking for a new negotiation model. Or rather: the trade unions are trying their hardest to convince employers that a 40 year old labour market institution is still relevant.
TCO's Eva Nordmark: unions must be relevant to our time
"The union's role is to be relevant in today's working life, which is considerably different from the time when my parents started working. Yet the basic values remain the same. As always the union is about the dream of freedom, development and having the chance to live a good life," says Eva Nordmark, newly elected chairperson for TCO.
EU directive on temporary agency work could reduce social dumping
Trade unions believe the EU directive on temporary agency work will see fewer staffing agencies pushing down salaries and working conditions.
Unique collective agreement for Sweden's staffing agencies
Staffing agencies in Sweden are experiencing a boom. In the last quarter of 2010 turnovers were up 42 percent on 2009 figures. Staffing agencies do however provoke conflicting feelings and staffing was one of the key themes during the latest collective bargaining process.
Temporary work agencies: misfits in Nordic working life?
This year will see the implementation of the EU directive on temporary agency work which is meant to improve labour mobility and facilitate the growth in temporary work agencies. It will also lay down demands for equal treatment of permanent staff and workers recruited through temporary work agencies.
The employers' voice in the European dialogue
Will the social partners reach agreement on the working time directive like they managed to come to an agreement on work-related stress? Initial talks have begun but nobody knows how it will end. The social dialogue is nevertheless playing a part in Europe's policy development.
Time for transnational collective agreements?
This year workers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden will be told how many shares they have earned in the French corporation Suez S.A.
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