New book on the 2008 social and healthcare worker strike and collective bargaining
Right from the first strike to the last settlement, the 2008 collective bargaining for the public sector was something special. It will go down in history, but what will it mean to the future organisation of the Danish labour market?
In the book ”Kampen om den danske model” (the struggle for the Danish model), Professor Kurt Jacobsen and Associate Professor Dorthe Pedersen place collective bargaining in a wider context, and they conclude that the dramatic negotiations was the culmination of many years’ of pressure on the Danish model.

Silent social and healthcare workers into action
One year before the collective bargaining process, the social and healthcare workers went on strike (who work in the health and elderly sectors), and it lead to the first national strike on the public labour market.
The social and healthcare workers quickly gained the public’s sympathy, the politicians made promises as regards pay and the protest signs were put to good use while the collective bargaining process took place in the media to an ever increasing extent.
- A number of fundamental principles, which have ensured stability in the public labour market for the past 25 years, were suddenly under attack, Kurt Jacobsen says.

Municipalities kept on a short leash
The Danish model, which has ensured stability, is known for the fact that the organisation is built on voluntary agreements between employers and employees and that the politicians and the government do not intervene. That was not the case this time as the collective bargaining process was highly politicised.
Kurt Jacobsen believes that it is too soon to predict whether or not the Danish model will survive.

- The collective bargaining process led to a settlement, but the politicians were involved to an extent that has never been seen before, all the while the municipalities and regions were kept on a short leash.

He stresses that the Danish model will have to stand its test in connection with the public collective bargaining process taking place in 2011.