The Christian Trade Union Movement

The Christian Trade Union Movement in Denmark was founded in 1899 and is today among the biggest trade unions in Denmark.

The Christian Trade Union in Denmark was founded in 1899, and today we consist of one trade union and one unemployment fund.

We have about 110.000 members, and the Christian Unemployment Fund in Denmark has about 190.000 members.

We have always been different from other trade unions. Our main differences lies within our organisational beliefs:

We build on the Christian outlook and view on human nature
We are interdisciplinary
We fight for the wage earners freedom regarding choice of trade union
We believe in co-operation rather than conflict on the labour market
We do not support any political party.

The Christian Trade Union in Denmark is free and independent

We are cross-parties. We do not use the money of our members to back up political parties; we have no organisational connections to political parties.

We have not restricted our possibilities to have political influence through certain political parties. We do not pay special attention to certain parties, but we can freely and unprejudiced enter into dialogue with all political parties.

We are cross-churches, and we have a foundation in the Christian view of life and mankind.

The Christian View on life and mankind

The Christian view of life and mankind is the foundation of the Christian Trade Union's activity. It means that we consider all humans as being uniquely created, and equally valuable no matter capabilities, age, and education or social status. We do not demand that our members have the same views.

We support freedom on the labour market

We advocate that no person should be forced to be a member of a certain trade union. Everybody should be free to choose the trade union they want - or choose to be outside trade unions.

We support negotiation and dialogue on the labour market

We believe in solving conflicts through negotiation and dialogue. In our opinion the class struggle ideology is destructive. The employees and the employers are not enemies but collaborators. They should have more common interests than conflicting ones, and they can achieve the best by treating each other with respect.

The disagreements should be solved through negotiations as far as possible, and if the negotiations reach a deadlock, then the disagreements should be solved in a dignifying manner, namely through arbitration.

We are interdisciplinary

We are interdisciplinary. We are interested in the entire labour market, and take it, as a whole, into consideration without being committed to the narrow interests of certain branches.

All salary earners can become members, and one is not supposed to change the unemployment fund or the trade union, if one changes the branch of activity.