Grassroots Labour Organising #1 – Working with and around the unions

Join us at FolketsCafe for the first of a series of events on grassroots labour organising

Conditions for workers in Denmark are getting worse, with migrants having a higher chance of ending up in a workplace where social dumping keeps the business running. This is not even getting into the psychological effects from these worsening conditions, and the precarity introduced by gig work and zero-hour contracts.

We are told that the unions are there to help us combat this, but many know from experience that they rarely do. Sometimes they need you to be a member, fully aware you can’t afford the minimum 500kr a month, other times they will tell you there’s nothing they can do and leave you at least 500kr poorer.

When unions often fail to offer basic solidarious action, when they align with the state, businessmen and enterpreneurs for addressing exploitation, some might find it reasonable to question their purpose and function altogether.

On October 2nd, we saw how self-organised workers, grassroots unions and non-union political groups can organise labour action and win battles against greedy restaurant owners.

This is not the last time this will happen

Recently, Wolt delivery workers (or “partners” according to the latest lexicon of capitalism) in Copenhagen took to the streets to denounce the absence of any employer’s responsibility towards those who make them rich day in, day out. A couple of months ago, workers at another delivery company were dismissed and downright ignored when demanded better pay as well as safer and appropriately regulated work conditions.

There is a clear momentum in grassroots labour organising. We want to promote and together explore this by inviting you to three events where our invited guests will share with you their stories, their wins, defeats, and processes in navigating labour action that is not always tied with the traditional labour unions. Our hope is to inspire you and provide you with the resources needed to begin to organise at work, connect with others willing to do direct action, and further connect labour organising with your political goals.

We host a series of events to show each other and “remember” together, share our struggles from work and learn from those of others.

The first even will be:

Aktionsgruppe and DM Palestine – Working with and around the unions

While the unions may not be always helpful, they are here and we must learn when they are useful and when they get on our way. In this event, people from the coalition of construction worker action groups will tell us how is it they work around the unions to combat social dumping by organising blockades. DM Palestine will tell us how they have attempted to move the union towards taking decisive political action and oppose the genocide in Gaza and how now their strategy is shifting towards organising outside the unions.

This event will focus on understanding the limitations that unions have, how to work around them if you already are in one, and how to avoid common mistakes. The space will also be used to brainstorm and share ideas on how industrial action can work for white collar workers such as academics, office workers, and others.

Bring your co-workers and your experiences and ideas. This will not be a “lecture” or one sided presentation, we will engage in group discussions and ideate together.

We will also do sign-ups for training on how to organise at work.

REMEMBER: the bar is cash-only, after the event we will keep the bar open so we get some time to socialise and continue the conversations.