TRADE UNIONS AND BASIC INCOME: SOME DANISH EXPERIENCES
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Keywords

basic income
trade unions
Denmark
political struggles
labour market policy

Abstract

Theoretically, there are many good arguments that unions should support a proposal on basic income. The main reason for the Danish trade unions resistance to basic income reform is that it would go against the short-term interest of the unions in organisational self-maintenance. Trade unions will lose power in relation to their members with a basic income. Trade unions have control over individual members by virtue of the collective agreement system and the labour law system. If you have a basic income system, the individual worker will decide when he or she wants to leave his workplace and strike. Suppose a single worker or a group of workers leave their workplace because of dissatisfaction with the working condition. In that case, they will be punished financially according to the rules of labour law rely on any support from their trade union.

https://doi.org/10.14746/sr.2021.5.4.05
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References

Christensen, Erik. 2008. The Heretical Political Discourse – A Discourse Analysis of the Danish Debate on Basic Income. Aalborg: Aalborg University Press.

Christensen, Erik. 2017. På vej til borgerløn. Aktuel idédebat: Hovedland.

Christensen, Erik. 2017. ”Basic Income (’Borgerløn’) in Denmark – Status and Challenges in 2017.” Retrieved August 5, 2018 (http://basisindkomst.dk/basic-income-borgerloen-in-denmark-status-and-challenges-in-2017/).

Conference on basic income by the Danish political party. 2018. Alternative 15 March 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0JBmVArjj4&index=10&list=PLR9QHpZthn6yHjN9fboZQqb_AI7DAIlbu).

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