Europe: Interview with Mark Bergfeld, Director of Property Services at UNI Europa

We chatted today with Mark about the two groups of workers represented by UNI Europa's Property Services department -- security guards and cleaners.  (UNI Europa represents 7 million workers in 272 national trade unions in 50 countries.)  Mark explained some of the issues that these workers face and the challenge of organising them into unions. When asked about union density in these sectors, he threw out the astounding statistic that in Belgium, over 80% of these workers are unionised.  But in other countries, the numbers are much lower.  UNI Europa recently produced a five-part podcast series about these workers entitled "Unsung Cleaners" in which the workers speak and we get to hear their own voice and words.  It had a surprisingly large listenership.  We discussed the series and why Mark thinks it got as large an audience as it did, as well as plans for a future series on the security guards.  Learn more about the series and have a listen here.