Annual Report 2019-2020

3 E F L I N G A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 9 – 2 0 2 0 And while capitalists are allowed to transfer billions into tax havens, while company owners have extracted dividends in the billions, we’ve been forced to fight for every single thousand-krona bill. From decades of experience we have learned that we gain nothing without fighting for it. We must also fight ferociously to maintain that which we’ve attained and to keep it from being snatched back from us. That lesson has never been as important to remember as right now, with the world facing its worst economic crisis in the past one hundred years. We will not acqui- esce in having the interests of the wealthy and power- ful prioritized over our own. During times like these, solidarity is imperative. But the wealthy and powerful will, here as well as else- where, try to convince us that solidarity means us standing with them, protecting their interests and that of their system – a system built on exploitation and inequality. They will act as though the pandemic and its aftermath resulting in worse living conditions for the workers is perfectly logical, that we should tighten our belts while they get to continue to do as they wish with the dividends of our labor in tax havens and the casinos of the stock exchanges. We, who are the pillars of society and all its value crea- tion, must stand together and ensure that this does not happen. Only by our focused determination can we avoid being saddled with all the burdens. Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir formaður Eflingar-stéttarfélags The history of working people teaches us that solidar- ity is our strongest weapon. With it we can take a stand and demonstrate our fundamental importance. With it we can strike and thus compel our employers, whether in the public or private sector, to acknowledge our importance. And with it we can make those in power understand that no one gets away with disregarding our concerns. We simply must ensure, by any means necessary, that the response of the authorities to the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic is based on an unequivocal acknowledgement of the importance of working people in Icelandic society. It’s clear that the situation which we face is grave. The world economy has all but ground to a halt and there is, so far, no foreseeable end to the global pandemic. We, the members of Efling, are all in this together. That is the way it must be. Only by strength of num- bers and unequivocal support for one another will we be able to present with sufficient force our demand that workers and low-wage earners must not be made to bear the brunt of what’s to come. We shouldered the burdens of the last economic crash and kept the wheels of the economy running during the subsequent boom. We’ve had to endure a profit-driven housing market. And our members, large groups of women in care work, employed by the state and local authorities, literally undergird all of society’s value creation, although our paychecks have not reflected that fact.