Strike Amongst Reykjavik City Workers Possibly In The Cards

Voting for a series of work stoppages and a possible strike is now underway amongst Reykjavík city workers within the labour union Efling, the union has announced, beginning today at noon and concluding at noon on January 26th. If workers vote in favour, stoppages will begin on February 4th.

There are approximately 1,800 people who work for the City of Reykjavík who are in Efling, including some 1,000 playschool workers and 710 caregivers. These workers have been without a collective bargaining agreement since March 31st of last year, and the union believes that its workers are long overdue for a wage correction.

Unfortunately, negotiations with the city have not gone particularly well. In fact, they have completely broken down, to such a degree that the union is now requesting direct negotiations with Mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson.

“[Efling chair] Sólveig Anna [Jónsdóttir] and the negotiating committee of Efling call on Dagur, as superior to all of the city’s employees, to shoulder responsibility for the conduct of the city’s negotiating committee, as well as for the effect which it has had on the status of negotiations and undertake the task of solving the city’s wage dispute properly,” the union’s statement reads in part.

The union’s proposal, they state, “agrees to the same increases in the wage rates which were approved in the open labor market in April of last year, and calls for a necessary and overdue correction of the city’s low wage policy.”

Should workers vote in favour of work stoppages, and if the proposal from Efling is not approved by the City of Reykjavík, the schedule of events will be as follows:

Tuesday, February 4th, 2020: Work stops from 12:30 noon until 11:59pm.
Thursday, February 6th, 2020: Work stops from 12:01 midnight until 11:59pm.
Tuesday, February 11th 2020: Work stops from 12:30 noon until 11:59pm.
Wednesday, February 12th 2020: Work stops from 12:01midnight until 11:59pm.
Thursday, February 13th 2020: Work stops from 12:01 midnight until 11:59pm.
Monday, February 17th 2020: Work stops at 12:01 midnight for an indefinite amount of time.