BJMF speaks English

Danish is no longer the only language spoken on construction sites in Denmark. Tens of thousands of migrant construction workers are hard at work across the country.

The relationship between migrant workers and the Danish unions has often been tense. Migrant workers are often underpaid by their employers which leads to downward pressure on wages, and the unions have had a hard time convincing the migrant workers to get organized and demand higher wages.

But we must also admit that the unions in Denmark haven’t always been good enough at addressing the migrant workers in a language they know. As god as every brochure, webpage, news paper and facebook page is written in Danish, and therefor not accessible to migrant workers who don't know Danish. If the unions don’t speak the language of the migrant workers, it’s understandable that they hesitate to join a union. 

Consequently BJMF has decided that the union from now on will communicate in other languages than Danish. The English webpage and Facebook page are the first steps in this new strategy. We hope to launch webpages in Polish, Lithuanian, Rumanian and many other languages in the future. All web pages are translated by unpaid activists, so we cannot promise when, and in what order, the translated webpages will appear. It depends on the language skills of the participating avtivists.

We want to thank all activists who have made this project possible.