Lizette Risgaard

Last updated May 02, 2023

Lizette Risgaard (born 15 July 1960) is a Danish trade union leader.

Born in Nørrebro, Risgaard grew up in a small house and found work as a cleaner. She moved to Amager, where she trained as an office assistant, while working part-time in a canteen. In 1980, she began working for the Danish Service Workers' Union, and was elected to the board of its youth organisation. She worked her way up to become president of the union, and also deputy president of the Capital Region branch of the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) in 2000. In her spare time, she completed a Masters in Public Administration.^[1]

In 2007, Risgaard was elected as vice president of the LO. In this role, she became known for her successful campaign for Ryanair to comply with Danish pay and working conditions for its staff based in the country. In 2015, she was elected as the president of LO, defeating Flemming Vinther of the Army Privates' and Corporals' Association, by 312 votes to 87. She was the first woman to lead the federation.^[1]^[2]^[3]

As leader of the LO, Risgaard dismissed its four leading staff members, and instead made her own appointments to the post. She built a strong working relationship with the leaders of the Confederation of Professionals in Denmark, LO's main rival, and in 2019, the two merged to form the Danish Trade Union Confederation (FH), with Risgaard continuing as president.^[2]^[4]^[5]

In 2023, Risgaard stepped down as president of FH following a series of revelations regarding inappropriate sexual behaviour on Risgaard's part.

A documentary, Hjerter dame, follows Risgaard as leader of the LO.^[5]

Related Research Articles

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 Swedish Trade Union Confederation, commonly referred to as LO, is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for fourteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly "blue-collar" workers. The Confederation, which gathers in total about 1.5 million employees out of Sweden's 10 million people population, was founded in 1898 by blue-collar unions on the initiative of the 1897 Scandinavian Labour Congress and the Swedish Social Democratic Party, which almost exclusively was made up by trade unions. In 2019 union density of Swedish blue-collar workers was 60%, a decline by seventeen percentage points since 2006. A strongly contributing factor was the considerably raised fees to union unemployment funds in January 2007 made by the new centre-right government.

The United Federation of Workers in Denmark is a Danish labor union.

HK Denmark, is a Danish trade union representing clerical workers, workers in retail, and in related industries.

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.

Mette Frederiksen is a Danish politician who has served as Prime Minister of Denmark since June 2019, and Leader of the Social Democrats since June 2015. The second woman to hold either office, she is also the youngest prime minister in Danish history.

Gerd Kristiansen is a Norwegian licensed practical nurse. She served as the leader of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions from 2013 to 2017.

Kim Kielsen is a Greenlandic politician, who served as leader of the Siumut party and sixth prime minister of Greenland between 2014 and 2021.

General elections were held in the Kingdom of Denmark on 5 June 2019 to elect all 179 members of the Folketing; 175 in Denmark proper, two in the Faroe Islands and two in Greenland. The elections took place ten days after the European Parliament elections.

Isabella Arendt Laursen is a Danish politician who was the leader of the Christian Democrats from 2019 to 2022. Arendt lives in Copenhagen and is currently studying political science at Copenhagen University.

Nye Borgerlige is a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Denmark. Formed by Pernille Vermund and Peter Seier Christensen in 2015, the party first entered the Danish Parliament, the Folketing, in the 2019 general election with four seats and again in the 2022 general election with six. As Vermund would step down as leader in 2023, Lars Boje Mathiesen succeeded her but was expelled from the party the same year. Vermund has announced her intention to run again as leader, as the party is currently without a leader. The party's number of seats in the Folketing is three, and it is currently in opposition.

Ann Pernille Vermund Tvede is a Danish architect (MAA) and politician known for co-founding and being the leader of the national-conservative political party Nye Borgerlige from 2015 until 2023. She was previously affiliated with the Conservative People's Party. She is currently a member of the Folketing, having been elected in the 2019 and 2022 Danish general elections.

The Danish Trade Union Confederation is the largest national trade union centre in Denmark. On formation in 2019, it had 79 affiliated unions, with a total of 1.4 million members.

The Danish EL-Federation is a trade union representing electricians and technicians in Denmark.

The Services Union is a trade union representing white collar workers in Denmark.

The Danish Prison Federation is a trade union representing workers in the Prison and Probation Service in Denmark, Greenland and the Faeroe Islands.

Lars Boje Mathiesen is a Danish politician who, since March 2023, has been an independent member of the Danish Parliament, the Folketing. From February until March 2023, he succeeded Pernille Vermund as leader of the Nye Borgerlige political party, for which he was elected a member of the Folketing at the 2019 general election and again at the 2022 general election. However, he was dismissed and expelled from the party only the following month after disputes over remuneration and campaign finances.

Susanna Gideonsson is a Swedish trade union leader.

Events in the year 2022 in Denmark.

Mikkel Bjørn Sørensen is a Danish politician and schoolteacher who, since January 2023, has been a member of the Folketing for the Danish People's Party. He joined the Nye Borgerlige political party in 2016 and served from October that year until October 2021 as the first national chairman of its youth wing. At the 2022 general election, he was elected a member of the Folketing for Nye Borgerlige. In January 2023, Mikkel Bjørn left the party in opposition to Lars Boje Mathiesen becoming new party leader after Pernille Vermund. Before entering Parliament, he taught history, Danish, social studies and Christianity at a primary school. Growing up in Juelsminde in Jutland, Bjørn now lives in Nyborg on Funen.

References

1 2 "Mød Lizette Risgaard: Den første kvindelige formand for LO". Alt. 7 March 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
1 2 Preisler, Marie (27 November 2015). "Lizette Risgaard, ny LO-formand: vil kæmpe for den nordiske aftalemodel". Arbeidsliv i Norden. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
↑ "Så stort vandt den nye LO-formand". Berlingske. 27 October 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
↑ Lundberg, Tobias (28 November 2019). "Lizette Risgaard: Formand for 1,4 millioner lønmodtagere". Berlingske. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
1 2 Nikolajsen, Lone (1 May 2018). "Lizette Risgaard har ordet i ny portrætfilm". Information. Retrieved 5 February 2020.

Trade union offices
Preceded by Harald Børsting	President of the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions 2015–2018	Succeeded by Federation merged
Preceded by New position	President of the Danish Trade Union Confederation 2019–present	Succeeded by Incumbent

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[alt-1] 1 2 "Mød Lizette Risgaard: Den første kvindelige formand for LO". Alt. 7 March 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2020.

[preisler-2] 1 2 Preisler, Marie (27 November 2015). "Lizette Risgaard, ny LO-formand: vil kæmpe for den nordiske aftalemodel". Arbeidsliv i Norden. Retrieved 5 February 2020.

[3] "Så stort vandt den nye LO-formand". Berlingske. 27 October 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2020.

[4] Lundberg, Tobias (28 November 2019). "Lizette Risgaard: Formand for 1,4 millioner lønmodtagere". Berlingske. Retrieved 5 February 2020.

[information-5] 1 2 Nikolajsen, Lone (1 May 2018). "Lizette Risgaard har ordet i ny portrætfilm". Information. Retrieved 5 February 2020.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]