Island

Iceland[i]

  • 1924 – A union of masters and journeymen in the barbering trade was established: The Reykjavík Barbers’ Association.

  • 1927 – A separate journeymen’s association was founded, called The Reykjavík Barbers’ Journeymen Association. The masters’ association functioned as an employers’ organization, making it impractical to keep both groups within the same body.

  • 1931 – A women’s masters’ association in hairdressing was established.

  • 1939 – The Hairdressing Journeymen’s Association (women) was founded due to very poor working conditions among hairdressing workers.

  • 1941 – A strike took place from early January to the end of March. It yielded no results, and hairdressing journeymen had to accept the terms offered by the masters. They received 175 ISK per month and 0.75 ISK per hour for overtime. Their demand had been 200 ISK per month.
    At the same time, municipal barbers received a wage increase without striking, amounting to 150–200 ISK more per month than hairdressing workers received. Hairdressing journeymen were exclusively women, while barber journeymen were almost exclusively men. There was no gender-based wage difference within the barber profession. After the strike, union activity declined significantly.

  • 1948 – The Reykjavík Hairdressing Journeymen’s Association was established, but it only lasted about a year because many of the leading women in the union moved to Copenhagen to broaden their horizons.

  • 1949–1969 – No active union for hairdressing journeymen.

  • 1969 – A new association for hairdressing and haircutting journeymen was established.

  • 1971 – A strike by hairdressing journeymen, mainly due to low wages but also concerning sick leave rights.

  • 1984 – Another strike by hairdressing journeymen due to low wages and poor job security.

  • 1989 – Training for barbering and hairdressing was merged into a single legally recognized trade: Hairdressing.

  • 1998 – The Hairdressers’ Journeymen Association faced internal difficulties (context unclear in original text).

  • 2003 – The chairman of the Hairdressers’ Journeymen Association stated that the biggest issue facing workers in the hair industry was chair rental arrangements (“bogus self-employment”).

  • 2003 – The Hairdressers’ Journeymen Association assumed responsibility for negotiating on behalf of hairdressing apprentices

·        2022 – The Hairdressers’ Journeymen Association merged into the                         Union of Industrial and Technical branches.

 


[i] based on Klippt og krullað, Aldarsaga háriðna á Íslandi Reykjavík 2018