SIK Chairman, page-10

BELOW IS THE FULL TRANSLATION OF GAFIA POST referenence Sermitsiaq:

The editor-in-chief recommends: We need to get started - now!

Jess G. Berthelsen, SIK’s chairman, is the man at the center. He threatens to go on strike in public, talks about a new party and has serious thoughts about present and future Greenland.

Jess G. Berthelsen believes that all talk of taking home the many areas of society that continue to be taken care of by the state must cease, unless a higher block grant is included.

Leiff Josefsen

"I prefer to shit in a bucket rather than continued dependence on Denmark and the annual block grant from the state."

This is how the chairman of SIK, Jess G. Berthelsen, expressed his reluctance to continue Danish dominance in Greenland, when he spoke at a demonstration on 1 May in Nuuk a dozen years ago.

Berthelsen's harsh rhetoric was more than just a metaphor. To this day, the emergency turf is served in a bucket in many small towns and villages.

Jess G. Berthelsen's point was, of course, that the time of overwhelming Danish influence must end. That the billions that the Danish state sends to the Greenlandic national treasury every year, keep Greenland in an unwanted dependence on Denmark. A relationship that, in his eyes, would delay the day Greenland can declare independence as an independent nation. So better f* in a bucket.

The basic view is the same today.

"But it is necessary to think in contexts and reason based on the updated knowledge of the conditions", said Jess G. Berthelsen in his speech on 1 May this year. A speech in which he, as spokesman for the country's lowest paid, habitually gave the Naalakkersuisut a broad side, but otherwise revolved around the desire for a coherent development in Greenland. Well yes, and then there was the annual one-liner: "Maybe you should think about forming a new party". We will return to that.

Living conditions

Jess G. Berthelsen is 64 years old. He has been chairman of SIK since 1990, ie for 32 years, how much has changed in Greenland. After many years of home rule and self-government and building a democratic behavioral society based on the Nordic model, Jess G. Berthelsen and more and more Greenlanders will move on; the perspective is independence.

But today Jess G. Berthelsen does not warn about the damaging effect of the block grant on the desired development. On the contrary. In a conversation with AG, he makes it abundantly clear that all talk of taking home the many areas of society that continue to be taken care of by the state must cease, unless a higher block grant is included.

Today, the SIK members' daily living conditions are in focus. SIK is currently negotiating with the Naalakkersuisut as a public employer about a new agreement for several professional groups, but it is dragging out with a result of the negotiations.

- We should have been at the finish line a long time ago. But when you go to a negotiation with a counterparty who is not really interested in negotiating and instead comes up with a proposal that looks like a dictation, it is difficult to get anywhere, notes Jess G. Berthelsen.

He points out that sharp general price increases make it difficult for an ordinary SIK family to cope on a daily basis, and he calls for a positive proposal from naalakkersuisut.

- What does the Nalakkersuisut intend to do to improve the living conditions in the situation we are in after the corona pandemic and now the war in Ukraine? In other countries, various things are being done to make life easier for citizens on a daily basis, but in this country, public employers have not even been willing to approach our demands for a new collective agreement. They can not afford, they say.

Jess G. Berthelsen refers to the rising food prices, and he fears that more price increases are on the way. In Denmark, from which Greenland imports most food, price increases of up to 40 percent are expected; it will also make an impact in this country.

- I wonder if this is something the politicians are aware of and have followed, Bethelsen asks rhetorically.

- If they are aware of it and have followed that consumer prices are skyrocketing all over the world, then why will they not do something? Where is Naalakkersuisoq for finance? Where are the politicians who during the election campaign promised more welfare for all of us? Was it once again words without content? Are the ordinary workers who are helping to keep the wheels of society moving so uninteresting that there is no political will to work to give them better conditions? Where are all the many promises?

- I'm worried about how the average SIK will survive inflation and price increases and high rents. I fear for the future if no intervention is made with compensation for, among other things, rent with improved housing insurance, lower tariffs in day care institutions, lower tariffs for electricity, etc., etc.

The ownership

If it really matters that the Self-Government can not afford to contribute to improved living conditions for the lowest paid, it is self-inflicted, Jess G. Berthelsen believes.

He believes, for example, that they have shot themselves in the foot and said goodbye to many, many millions right down to the National Treasury with the decision to ban mining if there is just a little uranium in the ore.

- It does not hold at all. Of course, we must take care of our nature, and we must take co-responsibility in the global fight against pollution and climate change. Rare soils such as those found in the Kuannersuit in Narsaq are very important for the green transition, but why should we not be able to pick up these minerals from the subsoil, even though uranium is a by-product? Why - when it can be done in a responsible way in relation to nature and the environment and the health of the miners?

Jess G. Berthelsen believes that the ban on uranium has been passed blindfolded on the basis of outdated knowledge and a notion of uranium and nuclear power, which is a thing of the past. And then he believes that the law is out of step with all intentions to support a business development aimed at more diversity and less dependence on fishing.

The pension fund SISA, of which Jess G. Berthelsen is chairman, collaborates with Greenland Venture and Vækstfonden on investments based on a share capital of DKK 320 million, which will find its way to Greenlandic companies.

The capital is aimed at companies with great business potential both as loans and direct investments, and with the pension fund cap on, Jess G. Berthelsen is surprised that the trade union movement and the employees' saved-up pension funds are so often overlooked and overlooked when discussing business development and economic growth. for example, happened at the Future Greenland conference recently.

- We were not invited to the employers' conference, and honestly I have a hard time seeing if it was a Greenlandic or Danish conference. Here the elite met with the elite, and I fully agree that such a conference can inspire and create networks, but - I have said it before, and now I say it again - it is no use talking about the Greenland of the future without involve as much of Greenland as possible. I mean, how else are we to take ownership of our own development?

Public-private

At the Future Greenland conference, it was a premise that if the vision of a stronger and less vulnerable economy is to become a reality, then it requires a significantly larger private sector with more companies in new business sectors. A premise that Jess G. Berthelsen does not necessarily agree with.

- There is clearly a need for more companies in new business sectors and thus more jobs. But if the premise is more private companies at the expense of a good public sector, then I do not agree. Instead of privatizations, I rather see a need for more public-private cooperation, says Jess G. Berthelsen.

He refers to the many small settlements and towns where it can be difficult or impossible to keep a private business going. In fact, only Nuuk can carry the transfer of public tasks to the private business sector, Berthelsen estimates.

- Our economy, the long distances and our infrastructure necessitate close cooperation between the public and private companies. In some places, this is the precondition for a settlement or a small town to survive, he states.

- At the same time, there is a constant migration from village to town, and perhaps the most realistic future picture is five or six growth cities, which must then support the small communities.

The youth

The scattered settlement in a very large country like Greenland places great demands on young people. Jess G. Berthelsen finds it shameful that there is so often dissatisfaction and insecurity among children and young people. He believes that the problem must be seen in a context - that it is also necessary to look at how the parents feel. And here their income comes into the picture.

- Inequality is growing, and so are the problems among many children and young people, unfortunately. That's a huge problem. The young people who want a vocational education are betrayed, because in the small towns and villages there are not enough apprenticeships and internships for them, and in the big cities there are not enough dormitories. The young people want to, but the matter is complicated by the law on internships, which requires that the young people have an internship before they can be admitted to a vocational school. That law must be repealed, demands Jess G. Berthelsen.

He also points out that it is necessary to establish what he calls a "real competence education". It means that unskilled adults, through an interaction between schooling and work in their hometown, can achieve status as skilled workers and thus work and be paid according to an agreement for skilled workers.

SIK party

It's time to think in new directions, says Jess G. Berthelsen. He and SIK and the many employees who fall under SIK’s professional umbrella are tired of the fact that the workers' cause is highlighted in toasts and political gossip, but is not taken seriously in everyday politics.

- Maybe you should think about forming a new party, said Jess G. Berthelsen in his speech on May 1 in Nuuk. A party that wants to speak for the workers, because no one today wants to get closer to their terms.

Since then, the possible party formation has been discussed in SIK’s main board, and here the matter is parked so far.

- We have not come this far. But now the balloon is cracked and we can talk about it in full openness. SIK's members and the lowest paid in society are not counted for anything, and something must be done about it, says Jess G. Berthelsen and emphasizes that he is tired of SIK being blamed for the wage conditions being as they are. day.

- SIK does not hold the key to the public coffers. The only ones who can raise the salary level for the publicly employed SIKs are naalakkersuisut. Therefore, our demand is that naalakkersuisut increase the wages of the workers so that one can live off it. The alternative could be a strike, says the SIK chairman.

Future, fish and change

Jess G. Berthelsen emphasizes that the strike weapon is the last resort if the negotiations with the public employers on new agreements finally suffer shipwreck.

- The social machinery must be kept going. Let us work together to find solutions instead of looking for scapegoats.

Jess G. Berthelsen wants political stability, but he can not give himself a last hint to the responsible politicians in Inatsisartut and naalakkersuisut - the politicians who have such a hard time taking a public stand on one of the most important issues in recent times, namely the future structure of Greenland's fisheries.

- I fully support the report from the Fisheries Commission, which I myself was a part of. I do not hope that the report has been pushed to the corner and put in a jam jar, because then it will end in disaster for fisheries and thus for Greenland. If overfishing continues, it will look black in 30 years. That case is another example of the need to think in change - to think clearly, to think new and to think intelligently. But we have to get started now!

"Collaboration and Compromise"

"Go Thor"