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In September 1998, Denmark's LO trade union confederation presented the findings of a new survey of shop stewards. The survey reveals that cooperation is widespread in Danish workplaces, and it must be expected that shop stewards will become increasingly involved in financial and strategic decisions.
On 28 September 1998, the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen i Danmark, LO) presented the results of a survey of shop stewards' working conditions and wishes for the future.
A majority of shop stewards, according to the survey, seek cooperation with management rather than conflict and industrial disputes, while at many workplaces the shop steward is regarded as a very important sparring partner for the management. Both management and shop stewards regard the shop steward as an important problem-solver and communicator between the management and employees. A clear majority of shop stewards - 70% - regard making the cooperation between employees and management work as one of their most important tasks.
The survey finds that 46% of shop stewards have possibilities of influencing strategic conditions at the workplace, while on the part of employers there seems to be a great willingness to involve shop stewards in the strategic and financial decisions of the business. However, many shop stewards are uncertain about this role: 60% feel that they could use better negotiating skills; and 48% state that they would like to have better knowledge about finance and accounts. These are precisely the qualifications which are required when it comes to taking strategic and financial decisions.
These are just a few of the findings from the survey, which provides much other information. In five theme reports, an in-depth account is given of: the profile of the shop stewards (age, sex, political affiliation, etc); attitude to management and colleagues; relationship with the trade union movement and the collective agreement system; wishes for relevant training courses; and wishes for the workplace of the future, training and education and the union movement.
The survey was carried out by theIndustrial Relations Research Group (FAOS) at the Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, and is based on a questionnaire survey and on interviews. Some 7,400 shop stewards, equivalent to around one-third of all shop stewards in LO, filled in the questionnaire, and 50 shop stewards, employees and managers at 17 workplaces were interviewed. The findings of the survey will be presented in greater detail in a future EIRO feature.