Why should foreigners take labor unions more seriously

Labor unions are one of the key pillars of Danish society since the ending of the 19th century. Labor unions are one of the reasons why Denmark can be considered a rich country. The reasons why salaries in Denmark are so high is because on multiple occasions since the end of the 19th century organized workers stopped working and said: "We don't mind working but we are not doing it under unfair conditions. Work is the thing that puts bread on our table and it has to be profitable for us." That is the reason salaries in Denmark are high and that is the reason why Denmark is such a popular destination for migration.

Leaving your native country can always be tricky. You come to a completely foreign society that works in ways that are completely unfamiliar to you and that can be daunting. That also leaves immigrants prone to exploitation because there will always be employers out there that are willing to profit on that constellation of events. My friends that worked and traveled around the world said that their first employment experience was always like that. On their first job thy were always underpaid. After a while they would learn the ropes of the country they are living in and they would find something better.

One time my girlfriend asked me: "But why would foreigners agree to work under bad conditions and be under-payed?" The answer is simple. Because they don't know what does it mean to be under-payed in Denmark and because their living standard is dramatically improved by accepting even the underpaid job in Denmark.

Take my example. On my current job I am earning three times more compared to what I was earning by working on a University job in Croatia and my working conditions have never been better. Now imagine what will be the difference in the living standard for someone coming from Somalia, Syria or Afghanistan? By even taking the heavily underpaid job their living conditions improved a hundred fold not three times. That is why and that is why they are prone to exploitation and that is why labor unions are important.

By moving to Denmark and not being a citizen the best protection you can get is by being a member of a labour union. If you are an EU citizen, you can stay in Denmark as long as you want if you are working and paying taxes. Then you are set. By being a member of a labor union you can give yourself that one extra layer of protection for the most important thing that is enabling you to live in Denmark, work. Plus, labor unions will be able to help you out with your salary, to double-check that you are not being cheated, to help you out with working conditions, overtime work and protect you from being fired on a whim. If work is the key element that enables you to live in Denmark adding an extra element of protection to it, can't be a bad idea.

Also if you are debating with yourself should you or should you not be a member of the labor union, you need to understand that the reason why you have great salary, a lot of vacation, 37 hours working week and great working conditions is because through the 20th century labor unions fought for it and they won because all the workers knew that the only way to achieve this is by standing united. And because of that, workers from all the countries, join! You have nothing to lose except for poor working conditions!

Life worth living

Yesterday, for the first time since the middle of March we had two of our friends over. It was beautiful! Having a normal conversation with real humans, after almost 2 months without gloves, masks and other corona safe talking equipment. It felt a bit like having unprotected sex. It was refreshing.

In the last two weeks I sank hard. Up until then I was doing really well. At the beginning I was like, ok this is going to be like a little vacations because some stuff that I was doing dropped, so I suddenly got a lot more free time. I was and still am going to work and that made me happy and it gave me some sense of security in these insecure times when people are getting fired left and right, hell I even got a raise.

I created new routines for myself. I never had problems with self-control. One of them was to continue working on my danish while the school is corona-out. And I was doing great until approximately the beginning of May and then I crashed.

The crash was triggered by a life event of one person close to me, that started me on a train of thought about life about aspirations in life and about what kind of a life is a happy life or a life worth living.

While I acknowledge that I should be happy with the fact that I am working and working on a job that doesn't make me unhappy or frustrated. That gives me a lot of free time and opportunities to pursue my interests. This corona-lock down makes all these perks of my job void. I can't go to vacation because I can't leave the country, I can't go to language school because it is closed, I can't attend festivals because they are cancelled. Hanging out with people is still severely limited because of the ban on gathering of 10+ and some people are still afraid of doing things and activities they would normally be doing. So my life is currently work, nap, danish, World of Warcraft and repeat. For how long, who knows... next year and a half maybe?

I never had and never will have that danish click in me that makes work an important part of my identity and I realized that during the time I had my dream job. The realization came on a day when I figured what the days look like for my boss. He wakes up at 5, works on some of his papers, goes to the office, stays there until either 13 or 15, depending whether he has a meeting or not. After that he goes home, spends two to three hours with his family, goes back to his study and works on his papers until 21 and of to bed. My first thought at that point was, man don't you have a life after work, what do you do when you are not working? That moment was the realization for me that while I may love my job at the time, it is still just a job. It is something that you do in order to finance living. Living is currently suspended. It boils down to work and staying at home doing... whatever you can do at home.

There is nothing for me to do except go to work, practice danish and play World of Warcraft. While it was fun when it started, for me it just isn't enough. I need to do and experience things that are not work related in order to be happy and currently that just isn't possible. I wonder how many people feels the same way?

It is not shameful

One of the great things in Danish culture is their working ethics. A lot of personal identity revolves around work, working pays of and there are no jobs that are "shameful".

There is a political consensus in Denmark that the minimum wage should be so high that the person working on a minimum wage should be capable of living alone. So making a decent living in Denmark is not hard. One just needs to be responsible enough to find a job, any job that one does not hate and you are good to go.

But I must say that I was most impressed with the fact that Danes do not consider any jobs as "shameful" or "beneath you". A job is a job, what matters is that you can live normally from it. That is the moment that earns you respect in Denmark. Not titles or accomplishments but the fact that you are working and putting "bread on the table".

I guess some Danes who read this may be confused with a phrase shameful job. Well, in Croatia some jobs are indeed considered as "shameful" or "beneath you". Some jobs you do just because you don't have any other options and you want to get out of them ASAP.

I remember one TV show called "The Exchange Office". The concept of the TV show was that a public figure trades job with an "average Joe" on some normal job for one day. In one of the episodes, famous Croatian tennis player traded with a garbage man.

The details are blurry for me because I have seen it a long time ago but I do remember the point. He found an experience valuable because it showed him just how important is the work of a garbage man and how hard are their working conditions. So, he developed a lot of respect for the garbage man. On the other hand he also got a chance to experience the ugly side of the Croatian culture. One part of the garbage man work is to sweep the streets, so he did that as well. So while he was sweeping the street, there was a lady walking towards him with a child and she didn't recognize who he was. She took the child to the other side of the street and said something like: "We shouldn't get close to him, he is a garbage man." He was shocked with what he heard, when he experienced it on his own skin. The disrespect shown to people who are working as a garbage man.

Fortunately, it is not like this in Denmark. You earn respect by working. It is not important what you do, as long as it brings money. You also earn respect by not mooching from the state. Social state is there to catch you when you need it, it should not be treated as a source of free money. If you climb up the social ladder, added benefits that come with it will be something you get for yourself and it will be expected that you do not rub them in other people faces because of the Jante law rule: "You are not better then any of us."

One side-effect of this approach is that, on the street you can't tell a difference between rich and the poor. They all wear the same, funeral ready clothes and ride the same crappy bikes that look like they will fall apart now. While the differences between rich and the poor exists, they are not visible and people with lower income jobs will be earning enough to have a decent living standard. Working poor is not acceptable in Denmark.

Danish society is far from perfect but their working ethics is something to aspire to. And trust me, garbage man are earning a lot of money for the work they do and nobody is avoiding them like they are irradiated.

Common courtesy in public

Last week I had an encounter, that reminded me of one thing that Danes are particularly bad at. They are bad at some basic common courtesy to others in public spaces. I will immediately say that I am not generalizing but just describing my experiences that repeated at least couple of times. It is funny that I am writing about this, since I was the one who was considered a bit rude with some of my behaviors in public spaces back in Croatia. But on the other hand, maybe that gives some weight to my observations. If my basic levels of politeness in public is low and I repeatedly observe behavior in public spaces that is too much even for me, then maybe there is something to it.

Walking on the right side of the sidewalk

This is one of those very basic things that strike me like Danes don't get. On main train station in Copenhagen you even have arrows showing the directions that instructs people in which way to walk after they get off the train and it is in line with the rule "walk on the right side of the street". I guess if it needs to be drawn it obviously isn't something a lot of people know. First time I noticed this social peculiarity was before the corona times, back in the day when the trains were crowded and people rude. I was walking on the right side of the sidewalk and I had to do a 90 degree blind turn into the corner. As I was doing that I almost walked straight into a person who was trying to do the same but he was walking on his left side of the sidewalk, just as the whole group of people that just got of the train. And none of them cared that I can't walk straight. After that one event I started paying attention to that and I figured out that a lot of Danes don't quite grasp the concept but interestingly enough, foreigners do.

Shopping

Shopping often feels like a battle for survival. Usually in Denmark, personal space is a bit bigger than in Croatia, but not in the supermarkets. If you are taking your sweet time while browsing through the wares and there is someone who wants the same thing as you do, they will just but in, shove you to the side, take what they want and go without looking back or apologizing. I guess, I don't need to mention that the ware in question isn't the last one in the store.

Waiting in line for the cash register always feels like the store is about to close down and people behind you will not be able to pay before that happens and they will loose all the things they wanted to buy. They stand so close that you can feel them breathing down your necks. If you forgot, by any chance, to put down the separator, you are in for a treat. They will take it, slam it as close as possible to your stuff and a give you a passive-aggressive look that screams: "You will not do this again!"

Going to guests

Dinners in Danish households are very cozy, no doubts about that, but they can be a bit glitchy at the start. It takes some time for coziness to kick in. When you arrive for a dinner, most often, you will be invited into the house/apartment but after that you will not be invited into the kitchen/living room or any other place in the house/apartment where the dinner is taking place. Often I found myself standing uncomfortably at the entry to the apartment and waiting for something to happen. When that part would pass and we would be invited to the room where the dinner is taking place some time would pass before you would be offered a beverage. Sometimes, my mouth started to go seriously dry for an extended period of time so I had to ask for a drink before I was offered one. But after these starting glitches it goes into the cozy mode. After a couple of beers it goes very cozy :D. It seems like there are no social norms about how to act/proceed at the time people enter your house or the apartment.

P. S. When you are visiting a danish household for the first time, do not bring presents! It is considered impolite, unless you know their taste specifically.

Other public spaces

Some things that I was taught as a kid about how to be polite to other people when you are outside are just void in Denmark. In trains people will not get up and offer a seat to a pregnant women, a woman with a small child or an elderly person. Everybody just runs in to grab their seats and avoids further eye contact with anyone.

Couple of times I also experienced doors being slammed to my face when it was clear that I am going to the same entrance as the person in front of me. That person would acknowledge that by establishing eye contact and would still let the doors close straight in my face. I had the same experience with elevators. On numerous occasions I was approaching the elevator door and the person inside would just look me straight into the eyes and slam them shut. Like those two seconds that she would wait for me would be time lost that could never be replaced.

What I find very interesting is that the corona crisis rules actually regulated interactions in public spaces and made interactions with others much more pleasant. Keep the distance rule prevents a number of situations that I mentioned from ever happening. Finally there is a rule for behavior in public spaces that Danes can follow and they do take pride in obedience to their government. Before they were just completely lost in socially unregulated public spaces. Maybe Mette should consider keeping the rule in place even after the corona crisis passes, if only for interactions in public spaces outside of events. It will make for a much cozier experience in public.

The sun

It is difficult to explain the happiness you feel when you finally see the sun in Denmark, if you haven't experienced it personally. Danes go bonkers in the spring when the sun arrives. One guy even told me that it is ok to stop working and go for a bit of sunbathing. That is huge, coming from a Dane and their high working ethics. That happened last year at the end of March, it was the first sunny day after a long winter. Last year I found it funny, but this year I don't anymore, because I lived through the Danish fall and winter and they are hard, but that is difficult to imagine. You must go through it at least once. And it isn't because of the short days, it is because of the lack of sun. On the winter solstice, there is 7 hours of daylight, which is an hour and a half less then what I am used to. Day in Zagreb lasts for 8 and a half hours on winter solstice. But the sun went away last year with the first day of September and it didn't return until middle March. It was worst at the beginning. I remember I called my old neighbor on 20th of October and told her: "Can you believe, today is the first day after the beginning of September that I actually saw the sun?" There wasn't one day with any sun for a month and a half. It was horrible! It was just gray, grey and gray and rainy and grey without end. It was like living under a boring, uniformly grey cloud. No wonder that in Danish language the word "sky" means cloud. That really gets to you, but it creeps in slowly, you don't even notice it. One day, while I was raiding home from work, I caught myself thinking: "Can't these clouds go away just for one day? Why does it have to be cloudy all the time?"

And I was going like that from day to day and my mood kept getting worse and my back started to hurt more and more. Until I started having really depressing thoughts. At that point I started drinking vitamin D and through two weeks it got better. Vitamin D took the edge of.

This type of depression is different to the depression that you get when life smacks you on the head. It is a bit tricky to describe. I was happy with the way my life was going and still am but there was constantly some heaviness that was creeping in from somewhere and I couldn't pinpoint where does it stem from. When I started taking vitamin D, it became easier. The heaviness vanished and the only thing that stayed was the longing for the sun. And that went away in the middle of March when the sun returned after a long winter slumber.

The other day I was talking to my girlfriends father about it and he told me the story where it hit him especially hard. He is working as an electrician and one winter they were working in the basement of a building. The thing was that when they entered the basement, they had to walk a long way in order to reach their workplace. The walk was so long that for the lunch break, they didn't go outside but they just had it in the basement. He worked through winter like this. He hadn't seen the sun in months because he would arrive to work in the morning, before the sunrise, spend the daytime in the basement and go home at night. That year he said was awful. It got him so hard, he was barely able to get up in the morning and get going. After work he was worth nothing. He was only capable of staring at the TV and nothing more.

So, the lack of sun during wintertime is a serious issue in Denmark and the only thing that can offset it a bit is vitamin D. And trust me, the fact that quarantine went into effect at the same time the sun returned to Denmark, is a proper little tragedy. Now that the sun is out, few people can enjoy it. I think that will hit a lot of people hard. The worst case scenario would be that quarantine rules are in effect while the sun is up and that they lift when the sun retires behind the clouds in the fall. That would be a serious problem indeed, let us hope it will not come to that.