Sólveig Anna accuses VR leader of trying to take over ASÍ

Efling leader Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir has accused VR chair Halla Gunnarsdóttir of trying to take over Iceland’s labour confederation, ASÍ. In a Facebook post reported by mbl.is, Sólveig Anna also said employers and the government had rewarded Halla for her conduct in recent wage talks while disregarding Efling’s responsibility and integrity.

Sólveig Anna said Efling had emphasised honesty and responsibility in negotiations since 2018, never threatening action it could not carry out and always putting members’ interests first. She said events in recent days had shown who was rewarded in labour negotiations.

Efling had deliberately chosen not to terminate its collective agreements despite what Sólveig Anna called a failure of the agreements’ underlying conditions. She said the decision took account of rising unemployment among workers and pay increases of 4.99 percent due to take effect in January. Instead, Efling focused on workers’ rights, including penalties for wage theft and the introduction of a rent cap.

She said the VR leadership and professional associations had acted inconsistently and without a clear position. Sólveig Anna criticised their forceful demands for higher pay and more vacation days, along with repeated threats to terminate agreements. When they failed to secure those demands, she said, their tone changed. She also dismissed the outcome of the talks, saying Halla signed an agreement with the employers’ association SA at the last minute without winning the demands she had initially put forward.

Sólveig Anna further accused the government and SA of rewarding Halla and the professional associations. She criticised Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir, saying she had given the impression that a special mortgage-interest benefit supplement was added to the government’s package at the last minute to accommodate Halla.

Sólveig Anna said the provision was already included in a government statement sent to labour movement representatives at 9.09pm on Tuesday. She said the benefit supplement and a provision for a bill concerning neglect had been added earlier that day during discussions she and Vilhjálmur Birgisson, head of the Federation of General and Special Workers in Iceland, held with the prime minister and finance minister. Kristrún told RÚV that both Sólveig Anna and Halla were right: the supplement was part of the government’s proposals on Tuesday, but its final form had not yet been settled.