Voting On Collective Bargaining Agreement In Iceland Starts Today

If you work in Iceland, and your union is either Efling or VR, polls are now open to vote on the new collective agreement unions leaders accepted last week.

In the Icelandic system of collective bargaining, it is not enough for union leaders and management to agree on new terms of employment for workers in Iceland—the workers themselves have the final say to either accept or reject the agreement.

If workers vote to accept the agreement, it goes into effect; if workers reject it, negotiations between unions and management resume again.

If your union is Efling, you can vote online starting tomorrow at 13:00. Polls will remain open until April 23 at 16:00. If your union is VR, polls are already open for online voting, and will remain open until April 15 at 12:00.

Voting is only as powerful as the voters are informed, so you would do well to read the terms before casting your vote. Efling has an English summary on their site already, and VR has told the Grapevine that they will have an English summary of their agreement online tomorrow.

The agreement is indeed far-reaching, going beyond simple wage increases; it also entails changes directed by the government and the Central Bank, and applies from April 1 of this year until November 1, 2022. It is therefore vitally important that all workers for Efling and VR take part in these votes.