How Trade Unions Operate in the Norwegian Model? Why Join Trade Union?

- Time: 17.30-20 pm, Wednesday 6. November 2024

- Place: Litteraturhuset, Wergelandsveien 29, 0167 Oslo 📍

- Target Audience: migrant or foreign workers, but open to publicum

- Organizer: Chinese Professionals in Norway (CPN)

What is the Norwegian Model? How does tripartite concertation and cooperation work? Why Trade Unions are still relevant in today’s modern society? Which benefits and help can a union member get? These questions are unclear for many people, especially for migrants or foreign workers in Norway.

An immigrant sometimes faces more challenges at work due to language barriers, cultural differences, limited contact networks, and poor knowledge and experiences about the Norwegian working life. What kind of rights does an employee have? How to negotiate salary? What can you do when racism or discrimination happens in the workplace? Where to get help when you are affected by downsizing and reorganization? This workshop will try to address the issues and help migrant workers to understand more about the Norwegian working life and how to fit into it.

Chinese Professionals in Norway (CPN) is a non-profit organization with members of higher education and qualifications. Having the support from Oslo Municipality, CPN has developed ‘Competence Center for Immigrants’ (https://workinginnorway.no) since 2011 and offered several workshops, activities, and networking opportunities to immigrants. The aim is to help migrant and foreign workers to obtain more knowledge about job-seeking, interview skills, entrepreneurship, innovation, laws and regulations and to be more successful in their working life.

This workshop will be given in English, free of charge, and open to everyone. The event is financed by the Oslo Municipality.

Due to food reservation, all attendees must register at https://cpn2003.no/cci/2402 The deadline for registration is Wednesday 30. October. Please contact Weiqing Zhang for any questions at weiqing.zhang@cpn2003.org, mobile 988 84 749.

Program

17:30 -18:00 Registration & Finger food

18:00 -18:15 Welcome and Introduction to CPN, Dr. Weiqing Zhang, Vice-president for Innovation and Technology CPN

18:15 -19:00 Keynote speech: How trade unions fit in the Norwegian Model and the benefits of being a union member, Ole Alexander Pihl Konstad, Head of Tariff Committee in NITO Private, Oslo & Akershus

19:00 - 19:45 Keynote speech: How bipartite dialogue and co-determination work in practice, Dr. Xinli Wang, Employee Representative at Telenor

19:45 - 20:00 Questions, comments, and discussions

Welcome to the workshop!

Speakers

Ole Alexander Pihl Konstad has served as a union representative for NITO for 21 years. He currently serves on the board of the Oslo & Akershus district of NITO. He is also head of the Private sector in the district. Ole Alexander has represented NITO in multiple foras, including discussions with members of the Parliament (Stortinget). His "day job" is in Cognite, an Aker subsidiary with employees from 60+ countries. He is therefore well positioned to understand the challenges of the "international workplace" in Norway. He has given several talks around workplace culture. Ole Alexander is a telecom engineer who has spent his career working in information security.

Dr. Xinli Wang works as an IT architect in Telenor. She got PhD degree in Compute Science from the University of Oslo in 1998. She has been acted as an employee representative in IT division and serves the board of NITO Telenor Norway for many years now. As an immigrant herself, she knows how important it is for a migrant worker to have the support from Trade Union at workplace. And as a board member of NITO group in the company, she has attended various negotiation and discussion meetings with the administration leaders and understands how bipartite dialogue between the workers' and employers' confederations works in practice.