Trade union representatives from ethnic minorities. Representation revisited

Inger Marie Hagen and Ragnhild Steen Jensen
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Inger Marie Hagen: Fafo, Oslo, Norway
Ragnhild Steen Jensen: Fafo, Oslo, Norway

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 2019, vol. 25, issue 4, 437-450

Abstract: The Nordic countries have experienced major labour immigration since the EU enlargement round in 2004. Recruiting workers from ethnic minorities is a major challenge for all Nordic trade unions. Less attention has been directed towards the need also to integrate these members inside the unions, for example, by having them serve as trade union representatives at different levels in companies, as well as in the unions. A glance at the top positions in the Swedish, Danish and Norwegian trade unions reveals an almost all-white picture. There is considerable imbalance between the number of ethnic minority trade union members and the number of ethnic minority representatives. This article argues that looking into the concept of representation, and especially the features attributed to trade union representatives and how these features are perceived, enables us to investigate the mismatch between trade union density and trade union representatives among employees from different ethnic minorities.

Keywords: Trade unions; representation; Nordic model; ethnic minorities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:treure:v:25:y:2019:i:4:p:437-450

DOI: 10.1177/1024258918800214

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