Theme
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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?
7 minutes
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”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…
11 minutes
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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.
4 minutes -
Greenland’s red hot labour market
Flemming Enequist stands at the stern of a Targa 37 with 600 horse powers ploughing him through the Godthåp fjord on his way to London Mining’s base camp 150 kilometres north-east of Greenland’s capital Nuuk. He works for the local authority and his job is to tempt young Greenlanders to find work in the mining…
7 minutes
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Mining equipment: a Nordic niche
Mining equipment manufacturers have been surfing on a wave of high metal prices. With increasing needs for metals in countries like China, India and Brazil, sales and employment figures keep rising.
3 minutes
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Transport facilities crucial to mining
Nordic politicians are waking up to the possibilities for the mining industry. On 12 October foreign ministers in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council met in the LKAB mine in Kiruna. Norway’s Jonas Gahr Støre (right below) and Sweden’s Carl Bildt arrived together on the ore train from Narvik.
5 minutes
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Welfare model put to the test
The Nordic countries worked their way through the 2008 financial crisis. The welfare model largely shared by the five countries proved effective. Now the world economy is on shaky ground yet again. Can the Nordic model still be a third way between the more brutal Anglo-Saxon model and the lack of state financial control seen…
5 minutes
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Equality driver of Iceland’s success
Higher taxes for those who have the most, protection of the poor and debt relief to businesses and households – all part of the recipe to get a bankrupt state back on track according to the Icelandic experience. You also need a proper post-party tidy-up, get the economy in balance and prevent criminal activity from…
7 minutes
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An election coloured by crisis
Which politicians can best guide Denmark through the current economic crisis, where more and more Danes fear going bust or end up unemployed? That is the deciding question in the Danish elections this month.
5 minutes
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Populists govern in opposition
Support for Finland’s populist True Finns Party has grown after the spring parliamentary elections. It means the new government is forced to take into account the factors behind the party’s growth, and first and foremost their demand for more expansive social policies to support the weakest in society.
4 minutes