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 Ofurgróði sjávarútvegs? – Hættið að afvegaleiða! Elliði Vignisson Skoðun „Fáum við einkunn fyrir þetta?“ Hulda Dögg Proppé Skoðun Rafbíllinn er ekki bara umhverfisvænn – hann er líka hagkvæmari Óskar Páll Þorgilsson Skoðun Sakar aðra um það sem hún gerir sjálf Sigurjón Þórðarson Skoðun Vorstjarnan hans Gunnars Smára? Guðbergur Egill Eyjólfsson Skoðun Hrossakjöt, hroki og hleypidómar Kristján Logason Skoðun „Þú verður aldrei nóg“ - Ástæður þess að kerfið bregst innflytjendum Ian McDonald Skoðun Laun kvenna og karla í aðildarfélögum ASÍ og BSRB árið 2024 Sigríður Ingibjörg Ingadóttir,Steinunn Bragadóttir Skoðun Sjávarútvegur er undirstöðuatvinnuvegur – ekki einangruð tekjulind Kristinn Karl Brynjarsson Skoðun Fiskeldi og samfélagsábyrgð Eyjólfur Ármannsson Skoðun Skoðun Skoðun Hvernig er staða lesblindra á Íslandi? Guðmundur S. Johnsen skrifar Skoðun Sakar aðra um það sem hún gerir sjálf Sigurjón Þórðarson skrifar Skoðun „Þú verður aldrei nóg“ - Ástæður þess að kerfið bregst innflytjendum Ian McDonald skrifar Skoðun Rafbíllinn er ekki bara umhverfisvænn – hann er líka hagkvæmari Óskar Páll Þorgilsson skrifar Skoðun Ofurgróði sjávarútvegs? – Hættið að afvegaleiða! Elliði Vignisson skrifar Skoðun Laun kvenna og karla í aðildarfélögum ASÍ og BSRB árið 2024 Sigríður Ingibjörg Ingadóttir,Steinunn Bragadóttir skrifar Skoðun „Fáum við einkunn fyrir þetta?“ Hulda Dögg Proppé skrifar Skoðun Hrossakjöt, hroki og hleypidómar Kristján Logason skrifar Skoðun Sjávarútvegur er undirstöðuatvinnuvegur – ekki einangruð tekjulind Kristinn Karl Brynjarsson skrifar Skoðun Að byggja upp á Bakka Hjálmar Bogi Hafliðason skrifar Skoðun Fiskeldi og samfélagsábyrgð Eyjólfur Ármannsson skrifar Skoðun Pólitískt raunsæi og utanríkisstefna Íslands Ragnar Anthony Antonsson Gambrell skrifar Skoðun Vorstjarnan hans Gunnars Smára? Guðbergur Egill Eyjólfsson skrifar Skoðun Fylgið fór vegna fullveldismáls Hjörtur J. Guðmundsson skrifar Skoðun Er Ísrael ennþá útvalin þjóð Guðs? Ómar Torfason skrifar Skoðun Flokkurinn hans Gunnars Smára? Guðbergur Egill Eyjólfsson skrifar Skoðun Raforkuverð: Stórnotendur og almenningur Ingvar Júlíus Baldursson skrifar Skoðun Hætt við að hækka ekki skatta á almenning Bryndís Haraldsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Skattafíkn í skjóli réttlætis: Tímavélin stillt á 2012 Kristinn Karl Brynjarsson skrifar Skoðun Hver borgar brúsann? Ingibjörg Isaksen skrifar Skoðun Hvers vegna berðu kross? Hrafnhildur Sigurðardóttir skrifar Skoðun Þannig gerum við þetta? Ísak Ernir Kristinsson skrifar Skoðun Stærsta framfaraskref í námsmati íslenskra barna í áratugi Guðmundur Ingi Kristinsson skrifar Skoðun Falleinkunn skólakerfis? Helga Þórisdóttir skrifar Skoðun Þjónusta sem gleður – skilar sér beint í kassann Margrét Reynisdóttir skrifar Skoðun Hvar er auðlindarentan? Birta Karen Tryggvadóttir skrifar Skoðun Miðflokkurinn – Rödd skynseminnar í borginni Ómar Már Jónsson skrifar Skoðun Virði barna og ungmenna Álfhildur Leifsdóttir,Hólmfríður Jennýjar Árnadóttir skrifar Skoðun Sættir þú þig við þetta? Jón Pétur Zimsen skrifar Skoðun Alþingi gleymir aftur fötluðum börnum Lúðvík Júlíusson 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.
Laun kvenna og karla í aðildarfélögum ASÍ og BSRB árið 2024 Sigríður Ingibjörg Ingadóttir,Steinunn Bragadóttir Skoðun
Sjávarútvegur er undirstöðuatvinnuvegur – ekki einangruð tekjulind Kristinn Karl Brynjarsson Skoðun
Skoðun Rafbíllinn er ekki bara umhverfisvænn – hann er líka hagkvæmari Óskar Páll Þorgilsson skrifar
Skoðun Laun kvenna og karla í aðildarfélögum ASÍ og BSRB árið 2024 Sigríður Ingibjörg Ingadóttir,Steinunn Bragadóttir skrifar
Skoðun Sjávarútvegur er undirstöðuatvinnuvegur – ekki einangruð tekjulind Kristinn Karl Brynjarsson skrifar
Skoðun Stærsta framfaraskref í námsmati íslenskra barna í áratugi Guðmundur Ingi Kristinsson skrifar
Laun kvenna og karla í aðildarfélögum ASÍ og BSRB árið 2024 Sigríður Ingibjörg Ingadóttir,Steinunn Bragadóttir Skoðun
Sjávarútvegur er undirstöðuatvinnuvegur – ekki einangruð tekjulind Kristinn Karl Brynjarsson Skoðun