Photo story: 1st of May in Iceland, unions' parade

COLOURFUL PARADE

May 1 in Iceland is an important holiday.
Shops are closed, and a parade is usually held in down town Reykjavík. So it was this year. Immense parade of multiple unions went through the main streets of down town in Reykjavík. And unions play an important role in Iceland. They give the workers quite many benefits so many people like to show where they belong to. And it is even obligatory to choose one union when you start to work in Iceland. I am the member of Reykjavíkuborg, union of the City Hall employees. Also I am in VR as I work as a waitress from time to time.

It was a sunny day and I met with some Polish friends at 13 pm to watch the parade. The city was so full that it was even hard to find a free table to have a coffee. In one of the group, anarchic-sindicalist, I spotted my colleague from work, a yoga teacher, very cheerful person and helpful friend. Now he is my flatmate in the wooden community house and I really appreciate it.

SCANDINAVIAN MODEL

My unions give me a lot of benefits: I have free access card for all the city swimming pools and a card for  city museums as well. I also may have 80-90% of co-financing of language courses and other courses that can be useful at my work, e.g. music, art.. That sounds really great!! And I was quite surprise that so many people took part in a parade, it seemed that almost whole Iceland was there! With kids, dogs, bikes, flags.. colourful and cheerful people showing they affiliation to the union. That's interesting experience I must admit!

There were also some people protesting against accession to European Union and some other against financial elite. I manage to took some photos with my mobile, didn't have my camera with me this time, so they are quite rough. Promise to hunt for some new nice photos soon! :)