A trade union or labor union, often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages and benefits, improving working conditions, improving safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing status of employees and protecting and increasing the bargaining power of workers.
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. A collective agreement reached by these negotiations functions as a labour contract between an employer and one or more unions, and typically establishes terms regarding wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs. Such agreements can also include 'productivity bargaining' in which workers agree to changes to working practices in return for higher pay or greater job security.
Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig, most often referred to as N. F. S. Grundtvig, was a Danish pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher and politician. He was one of the most influential people in Danish history, as his philosophy gave rise to a new form of nationalism in the last half of the 19th century. It was steeped in the national literature and supported by deep spirituality.
A national trade union center is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national trade union center, and many have more than one. In some regions, such as the Nordic countries, different centers exist on a sectoral basis, for example, for blue collar workers and professionals.
LO, The Danish Confederation of Trade Unions was founded in 1898 and was an umbrella organisation for 18 Danish trade unions. At the end of 2018, it merged into the new Danish Trade Union Confederation.
The Cooperation Committee of the Nordic Worker's Movement, better known by its abbreviation SAMAK, is an alliance of social democratic parties and labour councils in the Nordic countries. SAMAK consists of all social democratic parties and trade union organisations in the Nordic countries, including in Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Åland. The current President of the Committee as of 2024 is Mette Frederiksen, the leader of the Social Democrats and Prime Minister of Denmark. Antti Rinne is the General Secretary, and Kjersti Stenseng the Chair of the Board.
The Archbishop of Uppsala has been the primate of Sweden in an unbroken succession since 1164, first during the Catholic era, and from the 1530s and onward under the Lutheran church.
SAC Syndikalisterna is a syndicalist trade union federation in Sweden. Unlike other Swedish unions, SAC organises people from all occupations and industries in one single federation, including the unemployed, students, and the retired. SAC also publishes the weekly newspaper Arbetaren, owns the publishing house Federativs and runs the unemployment fund Sveriges Arbetares Arbetslöshetskassa (SAAK).
Akademikerne – The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations Danish: Akademikerne was founded in 1972 and a national trade union center for 25 Danish trade unions.
FTF – Confederation of Professionals in Denmark was founded in 1952 and was one of the three national trade union centers, with about 80 Danish trade unions affiliated.
The Nordic agrarian parties, also referred to as Scandinavian agrarian parties or agrarian liberal parties, are agrarian political parties that belong to a political tradition particular to the Nordic countries. Positioning themselves in the centre of the political spectrum, but fulfilling roles distinctive to Nordic countries, they remain hard to classify by conventional political ideology.
The Nordic model comprises the economic and social policies as well as typical cultural practices common in the Nordic countries. This includes a comprehensive welfare state and multi-level collective bargaining based on the economic foundations of social corporatism, and a commitment to private ownership within a market-based mixed economy – with Norway being a partial exception due to a large number of state-owned enterprises and state ownership in publicly listed firms.
The Ghent system is the name given to an arrangement in some countries whereby the main responsibility for welfare payments, especially unemployment benefits, is held by trade unions rather than a government agency. The system is named after the city of Ghent, Belgium, where it was first implemented. It is the predominant form of unemployment benefit in Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden. Belgium has a hybrid or "quasi-Ghent" system, in which the government also plays a significant role in distributing benefits. In all of the above countries, unemployment funds held by unions or labour federations are regulated and/or partly subsidised by the national government concerned.
The European social model is a concept that emerged in the discussion of economic globalization and typically contrasts the degree of employment regulation and social protection in European countries to conditions in the United States. It is commonly cited in policy debates in the European Union, including by representatives of both labour unions and employers, to connote broadly "the conviction that economic progress and social progress are inseparable" and that "[c]ompetitiveness and solidarity have both been taken into account in building a successful Europe for the future".
Tripartism is an economic system of neo-corporatism based on a mixed economy and tripartite contracts between employers' organizations, trade unions, and the government of a country. Each is to act as a social partner to create economic policy through cooperation, consultation, negotiation, and compromise. In Tripartism, the government has a large role in the economy and engages in negotiations between labour unions and business interest groups to establish economic policy.
The Nordic countries are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland; and the autonomous region of Åland.
Kristina Persson is a Swedish politician of the Social Democrats. She served as Minister for Nordic Cooperation and Minister for Strategic Development, under Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, from October 2014 to May 2016.
Trade unions in Norway first emerged with the efforts of Marcus Thrane and the formation of the Drammen Labour Union in 1848 which organised agricultural workers and crofters. However, with Thrane's imprisonment and the suppression of the union in 1855, it was not until 1872 before a union was founded again, by print workers. In 1899 the first national federation, the LO, was founded. During this period interactions with trade unions in Denmark and Sweden played a great influence over the development of trade unions in Norway.
