Racism at Work Is a Trade Union Issue

I am still thinking about Tamima.

Tamima Nibras Juhar went to work knowing she was afraid. She had reported concerns about a man who later killed her. She did what workers are told to do. Speak up. Trust the system. Show up.
The system did not protect her.

Tamima was educated, employed, and actively trying to build a life in the society she lived in. By every official definition, she was “integrated.” Yet she stood alone when she needed protection the most. Her murder was not only a hate crime. It was the result of layered failures in working life, in protection, and in solidarity.

That is why her death cannot be discussed only as an act of individual violence. It forces a harder question, one that trade unions everywhere should be willing to confront. Where are unions when racism at work costs lives?

Racism at work is not an exception

Racism in the labor market rarely announces itself loudly. It works through patterns. Through being overlooked, not believed, not protected. Through short contracts, stalled careers, and silence when workers report harassment or fear. Over time, this silence becomes structural exclusion.

Employment is one of the strongest sources of dignity and security in modern societies. When access to work and protection is uneven, inequality spreads into every part of life. Economic vulnerability deepens. Isolation grows. Trust in institutions erodes. These are not abstract outcomes. They are lived realities for many racial workers.

Trade unions were created to confront power imbalances at work. That mission does not disappear in diverse societies. It becomes more urgent. When racism shapes who is hired, who is promoted, and who is protected, it is not a cultural issue or a side concern. It is a labor issue.

Solidarity must include those most at risk

Trade unions speak the language of solidarity. But solidarity is not defined by values alone. It is defined by reach.

For many workers with minority backgrounds, unions are distant or invisible. Some do not feel represented. Others do not trust that reporting discrimination will lead to protection rather than consequences. When this happens, solidarity becomes selective, even if unintentionally so.

Confronting racism requires more than statements after tragedy. It requires competence, courage, and systems that work for those most exposed to risk. It requires unions to listen to lived experiences that challenge comfortable narratives about equality at work.

Tamima’s death should trouble us all. Not only because of what happened to her, but because of what it reveals. When workers who do everything right are still left unprotected, something fundamental is broken.

Trade unions have power, legitimacy, and history on their side. The question is whether they are willing to use that power to confront racism where it actually operates. In everyday working life. Before silence turns into tragedy.

This piece was originally published in Dagsavisen under the title “Hvor har fagforeningene blitt av når rasisme koster liv.