Danish Trade Unions and Young People
Using Media in the Battle for Hearts and Minds
Palgrave Macmillan
This chapter presents a case study of the ‘Are you OK?’ campaign launched in 2012 by the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and the Confederation of Professionals in Denmark (FTF) (which have since merged). Together these two organisations represented almost 100 affiliated unions and 30,000 shop stewards. The campaign’s aim was to increase knowledge of collective bargaining and collective organisation amongst the public, particularly amongst 20- to 40-year-olds, and for this knowledge to provide the foundation for more union members, thereby strengthening collective bargaining and collective organisation, and increasing its legitimacy. The campaign used a variety of communication forms to reach existing and potential union members and was the largest of its kind in the history of the Danish labour movement. The central research questions this chapter addresses are: What was the campaign’s message? What forms of communication were used? How effective was the campaign in reaching and informing young people?