Workers have the right to decide their own fate in negotiations Ian McDonald skrifar 2. desember 2022 08:01 My name is Ian and I work in a manufacturing job in Iceland. I am a member of Efling Union, and I also sit on the union’s negotiations committee. My job is many levels of management below the executives and the CEOs. I am one of the people who make a product which is then sold for a massive profit by the company where I work. My labor is essential to this continued profitability. As is the labor of everyone I work with, and everyone else in my position at other companies. That labor is the subject of a calculation by employers, which can be boiled down to a single sentence: “What is the absolute bare minimum we can pay this employee to stop him from not taking the job in the first place or from walking out of the door?” I have spent a long time in that position, where my only choices were to try and justify a pay raise to those same people making that calculation, or to wait and hope that other people win some kind of distant fight behind closed doors for any shred of leniency and support. That has now changed. Attending negotiations meetings with employers is the first time that I have been able to sit down and look a person in the eye while they tell us that we don’t deserve to be paid a living wage. For the longest time, we have been lied to that wage increases and other concessions are unaffordable and unrealistic. Until now, we have had no recourse to fight this narrative. No way to tell a truth to that lie. Yet, the idea that a wage increase is unaffordable by corporations is absolutely, fundamentally untrue. Perhaps that is why SA have not brought up that argument in the negotiations with Efling up to this point. Maybe SA knows that the moment they do, they would be confronted by the immense profits of the companies they represent and the entire edifice would crumble. We live in a time where every year gets harder and harder for us to merely exist. Where every paycheck goes less and less far. For far too long we have been deliberately removed and excluded from the very process which determines our quality of life. We have not been considered important enough to even be in the room. Just a number in a calculation. That is changing now. I look forward to continuing my work in the Efling negotiations committee with my brave fellow Efling workers. The author is an immigrant worker in manufacturing in Iceland and member of the Efling negotiations committee. Viltu birta grein á Vísi? Sendu okkur póst. Senda grein Kjaramál Kjaraviðræður 2022 Mest lesið Hver er svo sem ekki með hálfa milljón í rassvasanum? Davíð Brynjar Sigurjónsson Skoðun Svar við bréfi Carbfix: Óljósar hótanir ekki vænlegar til árangurs Davíð A Stefánsson Skoðun Til stuðnings Kristrúnu Frostadóttur Haukur Arnþórsson Skoðun Arðgreiðslur í sjávarútvegi eru eðlilegar og nauðsynlegar Birta Karen Tryggvadóttir Skoðun Hvað geta íslenskir stjórnmálamenn lært af nýlegum breskum þingkosningum? Jun Þór Morikawa Skoðun Hroki og villimennska ríkisstjórnar Netanjahú og heimska Hamas-samtakanna Katrín Harðardóttir Skoðun „Þið vitið hvað þið væruð að fara út í“ Hjörtur J. Guðmundsson Skoðun Hart er sótt að Hamarsdal Stefán Skafti Steinólfsson Skoðun Uppreisnarhaf íslenskunnar Helen Cova Skoðun Fjölskyldan í öndvegi í Ölfusi Elliði Vignisson Skoðun Skoðun Skoðun Til stuðnings Kristrúnu Frostadóttur Haukur Arnþórsson skrifar Skoðun „Þið vitið hvað þið væruð að fara út í“ Hjörtur J. Guðmundsson skrifar Skoðun Hroki og villimennska ríkisstjórnar Netanjahú og heimska Hamas-samtakanna Katrín Harðardóttir skrifar Skoðun Fjölskyldan í öndvegi í Ölfusi Elliði Vignisson skrifar Skoðun Svar við bréfi Carbfix: Óljósar hótanir ekki vænlegar til árangurs Davíð A Stefánsson skrifar Skoðun Uppreisnarhaf íslenskunnar Helen Cova skrifar Skoðun Dýralæknisfræðin eru tiltölulega ný Matthildur Björnsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Hart er sótt að Hamarsdal Stefán Skafti Steinólfsson skrifar Skoðun Arðgreiðslur í sjávarútvegi eru eðlilegar og nauðsynlegar Birta Karen Tryggvadóttir skrifar Skoðun Hvað geta íslenskir stjórnmálamenn lært af nýlegum breskum þingkosningum? Jun Þór Morikawa skrifar Skoðun Hver er svo sem ekki með hálfa milljón í rassvasanum? Davíð Brynjar Sigurjónsson skrifar Skoðun Carbfix: Stærsta framlag Íslands í loftslagsmálum heimsins Sævar Freyr Þráinsson skrifar Skoðun Sigmundi Davíð svarað Björn Bjarnason skrifar Skoðun Coda Terminal hefur ekki áhrif á neysluvatnsból höfuðborgarsvæðisins Sigrún Tómasdóttir skrifar Skoðun Líf og dauði leikur á hnífsegg Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Mengum meira Heiðar Guðjónsson skrifar Skoðun Hvað verður um Kára? Helga Sigrún Harðardóttir skrifar Skoðun Að eiga tertuna og borða hana líka – svar til formanns Hildur Sverrisdóttir skrifar Skoðun Hik er sama og tap Ingólfur Sverrisson skrifar Skoðun Af hverju leka gluggar fyrr en áður? Böðvar Bjarnason skrifar Skoðun Hluta þjóðarinnar hent út í kuldann – hinn baðar sig í sólinni Ole Anton Bieltvedt skrifar Skoðun Að óttast blokkir Ásta Logadóttir skrifar Skoðun Engin gúrka hjá Blaðamannafélaginu Sigríður Dögg Auðunsdóttir,Freyja Steingrímsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Stórnotendur eru kjölfestan í íslenska raforkukerfinu Guðríður Eldey Arnardóttir skrifar Skoðun Ert þú í góðu netsambandi? Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Evrópa og myrkrið framundan Hilmar Þór Hilmarsson skrifar Skoðun Heilræði fyrir Nýhaldið Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson skrifar Skoðun Glútenlaust gull á grillið Anna Gunndís Guðmundsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Kaupin á eyrinni Hjörtur J. Guðmundsson skrifar Skoðun Lokunaruppboð í Kauphöllinni Baldur Thorlacius skrifar Sjá meira
My name is Ian and I work in a manufacturing job in Iceland. I am a member of Efling Union, and I also sit on the union’s negotiations committee. My job is many levels of management below the executives and the CEOs. I am one of the people who make a product which is then sold for a massive profit by the company where I work. My labor is essential to this continued profitability. As is the labor of everyone I work with, and everyone else in my position at other companies. That labor is the subject of a calculation by employers, which can be boiled down to a single sentence: “What is the absolute bare minimum we can pay this employee to stop him from not taking the job in the first place or from walking out of the door?” I have spent a long time in that position, where my only choices were to try and justify a pay raise to those same people making that calculation, or to wait and hope that other people win some kind of distant fight behind closed doors for any shred of leniency and support. That has now changed. Attending negotiations meetings with employers is the first time that I have been able to sit down and look a person in the eye while they tell us that we don’t deserve to be paid a living wage. For the longest time, we have been lied to that wage increases and other concessions are unaffordable and unrealistic. Until now, we have had no recourse to fight this narrative. No way to tell a truth to that lie. Yet, the idea that a wage increase is unaffordable by corporations is absolutely, fundamentally untrue. Perhaps that is why SA have not brought up that argument in the negotiations with Efling up to this point. Maybe SA knows that the moment they do, they would be confronted by the immense profits of the companies they represent and the entire edifice would crumble. We live in a time where every year gets harder and harder for us to merely exist. Where every paycheck goes less and less far. For far too long we have been deliberately removed and excluded from the very process which determines our quality of life. We have not been considered important enough to even be in the room. Just a number in a calculation. That is changing now. I look forward to continuing my work in the Efling negotiations committee with my brave fellow Efling workers. The author is an immigrant worker in manufacturing in Iceland and member of the Efling negotiations committee.
Hvað geta íslenskir stjórnmálamenn lært af nýlegum breskum þingkosningum? Jun Þór Morikawa Skoðun
Hroki og villimennska ríkisstjórnar Netanjahú og heimska Hamas-samtakanna Katrín Harðardóttir Skoðun
Skoðun Hroki og villimennska ríkisstjórnar Netanjahú og heimska Hamas-samtakanna Katrín Harðardóttir skrifar
Skoðun Svar við bréfi Carbfix: Óljósar hótanir ekki vænlegar til árangurs Davíð A Stefánsson skrifar
Skoðun Arðgreiðslur í sjávarútvegi eru eðlilegar og nauðsynlegar Birta Karen Tryggvadóttir skrifar
Skoðun Hvað geta íslenskir stjórnmálamenn lært af nýlegum breskum þingkosningum? Jun Þór Morikawa skrifar
Skoðun Coda Terminal hefur ekki áhrif á neysluvatnsból höfuðborgarsvæðisins Sigrún Tómasdóttir skrifar
Hvað geta íslenskir stjórnmálamenn lært af nýlegum breskum þingkosningum? Jun Þór Morikawa Skoðun
Hroki og villimennska ríkisstjórnar Netanjahú og heimska Hamas-samtakanna Katrín Harðardóttir Skoðun