You have been recently elected as the President of the Norwegian Trade Union of Office and Commerce Employees. What do you feel about this election in the context of gender equality advocated by the ILO?
Trine Lise Sundnes: Well I do think that the ILO can do much more on gender equality and also within its own construction when it comes to gender equality. We in the confederation in Norway (LO-Norway) have a code of conduct in our Constitution that demands that each group/delegation/board and so on should consist of at least 40 per cent of each gender, and I think that the ILO as an international organization, should set a good example and at least come up to the UN goal from 1990 when we talked about 30 per cent and I think basically, it should be 50-50.
Your union is very active on the issue of green jobs in Norway. What are your views about creating jobs and protecting the environment?
Trine Lise Sundnes: Well I do think it is very important – both when it comes to industries that today could do better when it comes to using new technology to try to get the pollutions down – but also to see what kind of new industries, new economies, can be made out from green technology and all the whole environmental issues which are so important to today.
In general, what are the challenges faced by unions in Scandinavian countries, and what are your expectations vis-à-vis the ILO?
Trine Lise Sundnes: The Nordic countries in general have a more stable situation than many other regions of the world. We have a very high trade union density, and also a high collective agreement density, but we also have the normal troubles with employers who do not want to give us a collective agreement, or employers who only want to give precarious contracts, and so on. But overall we do participate both bilateral and tripartite when it comes to policy-making as a whole for the countries. So, the ILO is also important for us when it comes to Standards-setting in policy-making issues, because they do apply to us on the same basis as everyone else, but we have a long tradition of stability and I think that is because we have strong trade unions.
After the Day Action in Europe against the crisis and austerity measures on 14 November, what is your view about this from the Scandinavian unions’ view?
Trine Lise Sundnes: The thing is that the Nordic countries also differ. There are large unemployment numbers in Sweden, Finland, and also in Denmark. The unemployment numbers in Norway are less even though the industries there are affected too, and I do think that if Europe does not fix its economy then the Nordic countries will be even more affected than today, so yes we do stand alongside our European trade union comrades in this battle to get social dialogue back on track so that the stability and the economy will grow again.
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