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Higher minimum wage now!

3F-BJMF immigrant members make demands to the upcoming negotiations of the collective agreements.
OK2020 Raise the minimum wages

On Sunday, June 16, 30 immigrants gathered in 3f-BJMF in Valby, for a meeting about the coming collective agreement negotiations. The meeting was arranged by BJMF, because the union wanted to hear what demands the immigrants would like to bring to the negotiations table.

The current collective agreements in the private labor market expire on March 1, 2020, and it is therefore time for new agreements to be negotiated. 3F collects demands and wishes from its members until September of this year, after which the negotiations slowly start up. Before reaching their climax in January and February 2020.

Read more about the collective agreements

There are, of course, many who raise demands and wishes to the coming agreements. So it is important to raise claims early in the process, so that one can influence the other members and those who have been chosen to negotiate on behalf of the unions. Therefore, BJMF chose to ask its immigrant members already now, well before the negotiations start. It is especially important that BJMF's immigrant members' demands are heard because they know better than anyone else the problems, needs and wishes of more than 200,000 migrant workers, in Denmark today..

The 30 members who participated in BJMF's member meeting, divided themselves by language, and discussed which 4-6 things they most wanted from the new Collective Agreements. Resulting in the following lists:

The Romanian speaking members wanted:

  1. Higher minimum wages,
  2. Translation of the collective agreements, 
  3. Chain responsibilities 
  4. Sick pay on Saturdays, 
  5. Employer paid Danish tuition.

The Portuguese and Spanish speaking members wanted: 

  1. Equal pay for everyone in the same company, 
  2. Opportunity for interpretation during education, 
  3. Longer termination notice, 
  4. Higher minimum wage.

The Lithuanian speaking members wished: 

  1. Longer termination notice
  2. Translation of collective agreements and price lists 
  3. Translation of contracts
  4. Chain responsibilities
  5. A control and organizing fund that pays for reaching out to immigrants, and informing them about their rights
  6. Higher minimum wages

The Polish speaking members wanted: 

  1. Possibility of interpreting during education
  2. Higher overtime pay
  3. Paid breaks
  4. Paid time for representatives to carry out their representative work during working hours 
  5. Higher minimum wages

Four demands

After the group work, the four groups assembled and agreed on four demands that they will fight for in the forthcoming negotiations:

  1. Higher minimum wages
  2. Translation and interpretation
  3. Chain Responsibility
  4. A control and organizing fund

In the coming months, the task of BJMF's immigrant members will be to put there demands on the agenda internally in 3F and throughout the country. It will not be an easy task for the 30 attending colleagues, but if they get support from the 200,000 migrant workers in Denmark today, then no one will be able to ignore their demands!