The goal is to bring the experiences from the trip back to Danish vocational schools, where young people will encounter stories, photos, and videos from Colombia and gain insight into how young skilled workers are fighting for their rights and for peace.
For Sebastian Morgner, a board member of Rør og Blik Ungdom who participated in the peace trip to Colombia, the idea began with a desire to do something that extended beyond the world of the union and the vocational schools themselves.

-We’ve long talked about wanting to try to do something that was a little bigger than just ourselves, he explains.

-At vocational schools, subjects like social studies and looking beyond one’s own nose are given extremely low priority.
So we thought it would be really exciting to give apprentices an opportunity to learn about the world. 

On the peace tour

In addition to Sebastian Morgner from Rør og Blik Ungdom, Lasse Vejen Hansen from Rør og Blik Ungdom, as well as Nora Dahlman and Laura Marker from 3F BJMF Ungdom—the 3F Union of Construction, Earthworks, and Environmental Workers—participated.
3F BJMF Youth joined the trip to bring together more young union activists across different trades and unions and give them the opportunity to exchange experiences with young union activists in Colombia.

The World for Apprentices

An important part of the project is ensuring that the experiences from Colombia aren’t limited to the young people who participated in the trip. They must be shared with other young apprentices in Denmark.
The trip is therefore only the first part of the project. Together with a journalist and a photographer, Rør og Blik Youth will translate the experiences from Colombia into a campaign targeting young people in vocational training programs.
At ten vocational schools, students will encounter an exhibition featuring photos from Colombia that tell the story of young skilled workers’ efforts for peace and rights. At the same time, a video and a quiz will engage the students and give them the opportunity to gain insight into a reality that is, in many ways, different from their own.
In this way, the stories from Colombia will not remain confined to the delegation of young people who took part in the trip. They will be shared with apprentices who may not encounter international perspectives on the labor movement, working life, and peace in their daily lives.
-Normally, when we hold our events at Rør og Blik Ungdom, it’s often a relatively closed bubble where we all share a common understanding, says Sebastian Morgner. 

-But we also think it’s really cool that we get to share information about Colombia with people who might not be exposed to such things in their everyday lives.

Killed for the labor movement

He also hopes that the project will inspire Danish students to get involved in the labor movement themselves.
For even though Colombia and Denmark are different in many ways, the delegation of young people discovered several similarities between the daily lives of young skilled workers in the two countries. Among other things, the Colombian youth struggle to find apprenticeships and face social dumping, challenges that also exist in Denmark.

-Even though we’re in two such different countries and parts of the world, we faced many of the same challenges as apprentices and, more generally, as skilled workers, says Sebastian Morgner.

But the differences also became very clear. Among other things, the delegation of young people visited a labor union in Bogotá that organizes dockworkers. There, the union had a wall with photos and names of fellow union members who had been killed. Some had died as recently as 2024, and it was suspected that they had been killed because of their union activities.
It’s a completely different reality we’re facing, says Sebastian Morgner.

 -In Denmark, it’s been a hell of a long time since anyone was killed for being active in a union.

The meeting highlighted the contrast between the two union realities, but it also led Sebastian Morgner to view the Danish labor movement with fresh eyes.

-We’ve fought for our rights over many generations of union activists, and we stand on the shoulders of generations of people who dared to speak out, says Sebastian Morgner.

He hopes that the meeting with the Colombian union activists will encourage more young people to get involved in their own union and to see that their own efforts can help change the conditions under which they work.

The Earthquake Strikes

The study tour took an unexpected turn when an earthquake struck Colombia while the young apprentices were in the country. The earthquake, which struck on August 10 of this year, is the strongest recorded in the country this century.
In the midst of the disaster, they witnessed how civil society quickly stepped in. A labor union that the group had originally planned to visit converted its union office into an emergency relief center with beds for people who had lost their homes.

For Sebastian Morgner, it was a powerful example of the role a labor union can play in society.

-The fact that they immediately had the mindset: Of course we’ll turn our union office into a place where people can stay. I was very impressed by that, explains Sebastian Morgner.

Other union activists also jumped right into relief efforts, organizing community kitchens and providing food and drink for those affected, among other things.

This gave Sebastian Morgner a new perspective on the role of the labor movement.

-The labor movement in Denmark is perhaps a bit disconnected from some of the social movements at times. Civil society in Colombia really stepped up when the crisis struck. They accounted for 98 percent of the rescue efforts,” he explains.

Danish Emergency Aid for Colombia

The Danish Emergency Relief Fund (DERF) has so far allocated more than 900,000 DKK for the earthquake in Colombia. The call for proposals is still open: CALL OPENS: Colombia Earthquake

The Labor Movement in a New Reality

Although the project is about educating Danish youth about Colombia, the trip has also given Rør og Blik Ungdom new inspiration for their own union work.
Among other things, the youth delegation met with a Colombian union for platform workers that organizes couriers and drivers who work through apps. Here, the union had adapted its organizational structure to its members’ working lives.
For example, general meetings could be held via an app, allowing members to participate while they were at work. In just four years, the relatively new union had gained nearly 5,000 members.
-That’s a huge number in Colombia, explains Sebastian Morgner.

-I found that approach-adapting to the way members live their lives-very inspiring.

It’s a lesson he’d like to take home with him: The labor movement must be able to meet members where they are.

Apprentices Can Make a Difference

For Rør og Blik Ungdom, the project is therefore not just a single trip. The ambition is for the experiences from Colombia to become an integral part of the organization’s future work.

-I hope that, in general, we can perhaps gain a slightly more global perspective on the work we do.

Out in the vocational schools, the experiences from the trip will now reach a new target audience. For Sebastian Morgner, it’s not just about giving students knowledge about Colombia and the labor movement, but also about showing them that union involvement can make a difference.
When the campaign reaches the vocational schools, the hope is therefore that students will leave with a desire to get involved themselves.