Halla urges unity as Efling weighs leaving Iceland’s labour federation

VR chair Halla Gunnarsdóttir says Efling’s members must decide whether the union remains in Iceland’s Confederation of Labour, ASÍ. But she says there is much to gain from keeping the federation together, according to an interview with mbl.is at the ASÍ congress.

Efling chair Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir said earlier that leaving ASÍ was a real possibility. Halla noted that talk of unions leaving was not new, adding that some people in her own union, VR, had often argued it should leave. VR contributes substantial funds to ASÍ, she said, and sometimes feels its voice carries less weight than it should.

Halla said she personally believed it was important to preserve the federation, which she described as a valuable forum with a distinguished history that had helped deliver significant improvements in living standards in Iceland.

Sólveig Anna has criticised a proposal to reduce the number of ASÍ vice-presidents from three to one, saying it could allow VR to hold both the president and vice-president positions. Halla rejected that criticism, calling the proposal “a storm in a teacup” and saying its aim was to simplify the federation’s structure.

Under ASÍ’s rules, the vice-president only takes over the president’s duties when the president is absent, Halla said. The federation’s central committee proposed the change, which she supports, and it would require a two-thirds majority to pass. She said other policy issues and changes affecting workers’ rights were more important at the congress.

Asked whether she could still work with Sólveig Anna, Halla said she could work with anyone when discussions were conducted on a substantive basis, but could not decide whether others trusted her enough to do the same.

Halla also agreed with Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir’s comment that a united labour movement was bigger than any individual leader. Disagreements over governance were legitimate, she said, but should be resolved democratically. She added that threatening to leave ASÍ over the vice-president proposal was “incredibly strange”.