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.

How to meet a Dane

I come from a country where socializing was very straightforward, or at least I thought so. You go to kindergarten, school, university, work and on the way you meet people that you like or don't. You hang out with the people you like, first in neutral territory, mostly cafe bars, sometimes nightclubs. When a relationship becomes a bit deeper, visits to each other homes become common. I guess some people go to restaurants but that was never a big thing in Croatia. Socializing with people you meet on work was never considered inappropriate. And that is it, pretty straight forward right.

In Denmark, it is a bit different. Picking up people from school or university is normal and of course it happens, just like in Croatia. Hanging out with people from work privately is looked down upon. They are first and foremost colleges and should be treated professionally.

Unions

But if you move in to Denmark and you want to meet Danes and get some Danish friends none of the above is the way to go. Danes have something they call Unions. Unions are groups of like-minded individuals that share the same interests. They form a group around that interest and pursue it together. Imagine whatever hobby you like: darts, pool, cycling, role play, board-games, books etc. In Denmark, every middle sized city should have one. That is the way to meet Danes. 

I am currently a member of CIWIB. It is a union for board games. We meet once a week, every Wednesday and we play board games from 17 to 22. The thing with unions is that, nobody joins a union for hanging out, but for the pursuit of the common interest. Socializing comes in a package with it. In my group social mingling is happening while the group is forming, during a dinner break and while it is dissolving. In those moments people get to know each-other and chat about their lives and problems. It is also important to note that even that way it takes some time.

But even with that, people that move to Denmark potentially could have problems meeting Danes. With high Danish working ethics and a lot of time dedicated to work, after spending time with family, there isn't a lot of time to hang out with others. Meeting people on work, while it would be easy, isn't really an option because colleagues are just colleagues and not friends. Hanging out with them outside work is considered inappropriate.

There are two additional elements that makes meeting new people a bit hard. One is the so called Piper Act or privacy in public act. When you boil it down it basically says that when you are in public you shouldn't be a nuisance to anyone in anyway. To put it in other words, all people in public spaces have the right to their privacy. This rule translates into real life that people do not interact with anyone unless it is unavoidable. Fx. sometimes, when I am in a train I need to park my bike on somebody else bike, then I need to ask "Where are you going off", so we can figure out in what order to park the bikes and that is it, that is the only interaction people have with each other. Of course it is usually difficult to meet other people in public spaces. Piper act places an additional hurdle to it because people don't talk at all to each other in public spaces. So basically, chatting up others is virtually impossible.

Danish high paychecks heavily influence the social life. You, would think it makes it easier, but it actually makes it harder. Because everybody has high paychecks, including the waiters. That means, when you go out, you will pay for a beer around 50 kronas. One average night out could cost you around 1000 kronas and that is a lot even for danish pay-checks. And it is apparent in Denmark that Danes adapted to it. Most people are hanging out in private apartments through out the year, during summer months people barbecue a lot in the parks and there is a lot of small street festivals you can attend with your own drinks that you get from the stores. Going out to eat is reserved only for a very special occasions. 

So, when you take all these elements of Danish culture makes meeting new people a bit hard. So, how to approach it then? Well, if you want to meet foreigners, language schools is a good place. A lot of people there doesn't have a lot of contacts in Denmark so they are very open to make new acquaintances and mostly they find other Danish people very cold and distanced. But, you will not meet Danes there. If you really want to meet Danes, think hobbies, google them in the city where you live and go. There will most likely be a group that does it. Go there, meet Danes and be patient. They are a bit like a bottle of ketchup, you need to shake long and hard and for a while nothing will come out, but then suddenly so much will spill out that you will want to return some of it back into the bottle.

Work, work

Arbejde, arbejde (work, work) are the words you hear far too often when talking to Danes. Arbejde means work and work is an integral part of Danish identity, without it Danes wouldn't be what they are. It pops out in every conversation, it is in every corner of every street, it is a part of family life, it is ever-present and unavoidable... it is work. What's up with Danes and work and why do they find it so important?

They have a worker bee hive mind mentality. They say that if they work hard they will produce enough value and that will be good for everyone. Basically they think that with hard work, value is produced that can go back to their social state and their social state will provide to those in need. So hard work is the thing that makes Danish social state, that provides the safety net, run around and Danes want and like their social state. This is where the first paradox in Danish culture arises - and they have a number of them. Their amazing social state can run around only if Danes continue working hard and if they use it only in circumstances when it is simply unavoidable: when they loose a job or for some reason they are unable to work. But at the same time, ideally and if possible, services of the social state should never be used.

Also, working market in Denmark is very flexible. It is very flexible because on the one hand the demand for workers is huge and on the other hand there is a safety net I have been mentioning that kicks in when people lose jobs, quit jobs or are not able to work, because of all that taken together people are not afraid to change jobs. That also makes staying in one workplace for life not that common, at the same time job hopping is looked down upon. So, changing jobs is considered ok, as long as that doesn't happen too often.

Danes start working when they are 13. Not a lot of course, couple of hours per week, on a bit lower wage because in those years people will not be put in positions that require a lot of responsibility. By 18 they developed their working habits, they did a number of starter jobs and at that time the default Danish family expects that their kid should, find their own place to live and go. 

One good consequence of this is that there is no jobs that are looked down upon. It isn't shameful to work as a garbage man, cleaner, delivery man etc. The first thing that gets you respect in Denmark is that you are working. It is always more important to earn your own money, be independent, pull your own weight and contribute to society in general then to be picky with jobs and mooch from the social state and your family. Social state is there only in case of emergency and it is not to be used lightly.

And hard work pays of!

In Denmark, connections will not get you very far, not compared to hard work and skill. Hard work also pays of at a much more fundamental level. Political consensus in Denmark is that the lowest salary should be so high that you can make your own living. You wouldn't get rich from it but you could make your life run around without help from others. Something completely unimaginable from where I come from. That hard work pays of is seen everywhere in Denmark. It is something for one of the following blog posts.