Conflict drains trade unions' cash balance

All but one of the above unions paid striking workers maximum unemployment benefit - DKK 538 per day or DKK 2,690 per week - during the 11 days of dispute. The exception was HK, whose striking members received full wage compensation. The effects for the various unions are as follows:

• the conflict has been particularly costly for the Union of Graphical Workers. With a strike fund of only DKK 20 million, it had to borrow some DKK 40 million in order to pay out approximately DKK 60 million to members on strike. Union members can expect to see a considerable increase in union dues. The union plans to establish a new structure with other trade unions in order to spread the costs of conflict;

• the RBF paid out some DKK 35 million to workers on strike, and its members will have to pay DKK 200 extra in union dues over a six-month period in order to replenish the strike fund. As a consequence of the costly conflict, the RBF has made plans to merge with another trade union;

• KAD paid out some DKK 150 million and will have to ask its members to refill the strike fund. The exact amount will be decided in June 1998 (DK9710134F);

• some 45,000 of the 71,000 members of Wood-Industry-Construction were on strike, adding up to a total cost of some DKK 200 million. This union too will decide how to fill the hole in its strike fund;

• for the second-largest trade union in Denmark, SiD, the 11-day conflict involved 175,000 of its 306,000 members. However, since SiD has a strike fund of DKK 2.5 billion, the DKK 600 million paid out to workers during the conflict has not caused problems;

• Metal, Denmark's fourth-largest union, has no strike fund nor any rule on the amount of money available for workers on strike. The cost was DKK 240 million which will be covered by the members (as it has been before); and

• HK used more than 25% of its strike fund - equal to DKK 325 million of the DKK 1.2 billion fund. The conflict involved 25,000 workers from HK's industry section and 30,000 workers from its commerce section who were locked out for a few days. Since four of its five sections will be conducting collective bargaining in 1999, HK feels that it needs to rebuild the fund. Furthermore, as the largest union in Denmark and the only union which offer full wage compensation to workers during strikes, HK is in need of considerable amount of funds.

Since collective bargaining now takes place every year, with a consequent higher risk of conflict, the unions' need for a full strike fund is evident. The public, financial and agricultural sectors will undertake collective bargaining in 1999 and the private sector bargaining area represented by the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen i Danmark, LO) and the Danish Employers' Confederation (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, DA) will renew its collective agreements in 2000.