Breakthrough for alternative trade union movement

In November 1998, the Danish Christian Trade Union signed a collective agreement with restaurant owners in Nyhavn, Copenhagen. This means that, for the first time, the largest alternative organisation to the traditional trade union movement will have a collective agreement in that part of the labour market which is regarded as being covered by the two largest central organisations, the Danish Federation of Trade Unions (LO) and the Danish Employers' Confederation (DA).

Many years of industrial disputes on pay and working conditions in Nyhavn, a major bar and restaurant area in Copenhagen, took an unexpected turn in November 1998 when the area's restaurant owners entered into a collective agreement with the Danish Christian Trade Union (Den Kristeligt Fagforening, DKF), which is one of the very few alternative organisations to the established Danish trade union movement (DK9802153F).

The collective agreement marks a breakthrough for the union, which has, until now, not been able to gain a foothold in the bargaining area covered by the two largest central organisations, the Danish Federation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen i Danmark, LO) and the Danish Employers' Confederation (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, DA). The general rule for DKF has been that it has entered into agreements solely with the closely related Danish Christian Employers' Federation (Kristeligt Arbejdsgiverforening). These collective agreements, of which there have only been a very limited number, include stipulations that the parties must not use strikes or lockouts as a weapon, for example in connection with the renewal of existing collective agreements. The new collective agreement with the restaurateurs in Nyhavn contains a similar provision. Restaurant employees have participated in the bargaining and have, according to their employers, declared themselves to be satisfied with the new collective agreement, which secures regulated employment conditions in Nyhavn.

The catering trade has always differed, to a greater or lesser extent, from the general Danish picture of a well-organised labour market governed by collective agreements. Union density has been considerably below the national average, which is around 80%. The restaurants in Nyhavn were part of the unorganised part of the trade, with which the LO-affiliated Restaurant Workers' Union (Restaurationsbranchens Forbund, RBF) had tried to sign a collective agreement since 1994. Pickets were organised over a long period, which resulted in recurring clashes which were more violent than is normally the case in Danish industrial relations.

The main problem was the issue of the flexibility of working hours. Employers in the Nyhavn area, which is characterised by seasonal and weather-related fluctuations, wanted to be able to use part-time employees to the greatest possible extent, including a number of students who could step in without notice when there were sufficient customers. RBF wanted to secure the sector as an area for full-time professional employees to the greatest possible extent. In the spring of 1998, RBF succeeded in entering into a compromise agreement with the Nyhavn restaurateurs. Under this deal, there was greater possibility for flexible planning of working hours than in RBF's agreement with the Association of the Hotel, Restaurant, and Leisure Industry in Denmark (Hotel-, Restaurant- og Turisterhvervets Arbejdsgiverforening, HORESTA), a member organisation of DA. Consequently, HORESTA brought RBF before the Industrial Court, which, in a ruling in autumn 1998, held the Nyhavn agreement to be contrary to the collective agreement: unions cannot enter into agreements with unorganised employers which accept poorer terms and conditions than those which have been agreed with an employers' organisation.

This put the situation in Nyhavn back to square one, and this situation was then used by DKF to secure a bargaining breakthrough for itself. Whether this breakthrough will mean that other employers with similar problems will, to a greater extent, enter into agreements with DKF, or whether the catering trade in general, and Nyhavn in particular, is such a special area that there will be no knock-on effect, only the future will show. However, this is clearly a development which will be monitored with interest by the established organisations on the Danish labour market.