Swedish Trade Union Confederation

The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (Swedish: Landsorganisationen i Sverige, literally "National Organisation in Sweden"), commonly referred to as LO, is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for fourteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly "blue-collar" workers. The Confederation, which gathers in total about 1.5 million employees out of Sweden's 10 million people population, was founded in 1898 by blue-collar unions on the initiative of the 1897 Scandinavian Labour Congress and the Swedish Social Democratic Party, which almost exclusively was made up by trade unions.[1] In 2019 union density of Swedish blue-collar workers was 60%,[2] a decline by seventeen percentage points since 2006 (blue-collar union density in 2006: 77%). A strongly contributing factor was the considerably raised fees to union unemployment funds in January 2007 made by the new centre-right government.[3] [4]

Swedish Trade Union Confederation
Full nameSwedish Trade Union Confederation
Native nameLandsorganisationen i Sverige (LO)
Founded7 August 1898 (1898-08-07)
Members1.23 million
AffiliationITUC, ETUC
Key peopleKarl-Petter Thorwaldsson, president
Office locationStockholm, Sweden
CountrySweden
Websitewww.lo.se

Organisation
LO-borgen (Swedish: 'the LO-castle'), the landmark LO headquarters building by Swedish architect Ferdinand Boberg, at Norra Bantorget in Stockholm. 59°20′8.9″N 18°3′17.2″E

The fourteen affiliates of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation span both the private and the public sector. The member unions are fully independent, with the role of the Confederation limited to the co-ordination of wage bargaining, international activities, trade union education and other areas. Another important task is to promote the organisation's views to decision-makers and the general public. It also has representatives on the governing bodies of many government authorities. The Confederation is also responsible for research and signing labour market insurance schemes. The member unions, however, carry the responsibility for the administration of the unemployment insurance funds.

While its Danish sister organisation, the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions, cut its formal ties to the country's Social Democratic party in 1995, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation maintains a strong cooperation with the Social Democrats. Although the organisations are independent from each other, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation has a representative on the party’s executive committee elected by the Party Congress. Also, both the Confederation and the member unions contribute substantial amounts of money to the party.

Until 1987 there was a system of collective membership in the Social Democratic Party for members in the confederation, in which the local union could apply for membership in the Social Democratic Party, effectively enrolling all its members into the Social Democratic Party. (An individual could decline to be part of this collective membership.)

Until recently, The Swedish Trade Union Confederation owned 50.1% of the evening newspaper Aftonbladet, the largest daily newspaper in Scandinavia (as of 2005). As of 2012, the organisation owns 9% of the newspaper. The organisation bought Aftonbladet in 1956 but sold off 49.9 percent to Norwegian media company Schibsted on 2 May 1996.

The number of member unions have been reduced by mergers. Most recently the Forest and Wood Workers' Union and the Graphic Workers' Union merged into the single union GS Union on 1 June 2009.

Affiliates

Current affiliates
Membership of LO affiliates (31 December 2018)[5]
Union Abbreviation Founded Men Women Total Change (2017)
Swedish Building Workers' Union Byggnads 1949 77 512 1 218 78 730 409
Swedish Electricians' Union SEF 1906 18 518 456 18 974 333
Swedish Building Maintenance Workers' Union Fastighets 1936 13 624 12 700 26 324 718
GS GS 2009 31 987 6 861 38 848 1 096
Swedish Commercial Employees' Union Handels 1906 45 665 77 672 123 337 1 001
Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union HRF 1918 10 949 16 017 26 966 921
IF Metall IF Metal 2006 200 292 46 543 246 835 305
Swedish Municipal Workers' Union Kommunal 1910 108 426 391 728 500 154 7 333
Swedish Food Workers' Union Livs 1896 15 317 8 041 23 358 1 062
Swedish Painters' Union Målarna 1887 9 833 1 277 11 110 47
Swedish Paper Workers' Union Pappers 1920 11 722 2 190 13 912 370
Swedish Union for Service and Communications Employees Seko 1995 53 981 18 175 72 156 960
Swedish Musicians' Union SMF 1907 1 805 469 2 274 13
Swedish Transport Workers' Union Transport 1897 41 494 8 343 49 837 1 889
TOTAL 641 125 591 690 1 232 815 15 575
52% 48% 1.25%

Former affiliates
UnionAbbreviation[6]FoundedLeftReason not affiliatedMembership (1954)[7]
Civil Administration Personnel UnionCPF19051970Merged into SF6,676
Insurance Agents' UnionFF19182002Disaffiliated7,947
Power Plant Personnel UnionKPF19211970Merged into SF1,173
State Hospital Personnel UnionSSF19411967Merged into Kommunal7,928
Swedish Boilermakers' UnionSDF19031948Merged into FabriksN/A
Swedish Bookbinders' UnionSBbaf18931973Merged into GF11,391
Swedish Brewery Workers' UnionSBiaf18991965Merged into Livs7,939
Swedish Bricklayers' UnionMurare18901961Merged into Byggnads15,594
Swedish Building Wood Workers' UnionBtaf19241949Merged into ByggnadsN/A
Swedish Chimney Sweeps' UnionSSf19191981Merged into Kommunal963
Swedish Clothing Workers' UnionSBaf18891972Merged into Beklädnads37,959
Swedish Factory Workers' UnionFabriks18911993Merged into IF63,086
Swedish Farm Workers' UnionSLF19082001Merged into Kommunal38,980
Swedish Forest and Wood Workers' UnionSkogs- o Trä19982009Merged into GSN/A
Swedish Forest Workers' UnionSSAF19181998Merged into Skogs- o Trä36,486
Swedish Foundry Workers' UnionGjutare18931964Merged into Metall11,408
Swedish Graphic Workers' UnionGF19732009Merged into GSN/A
Swedish Industrial UnionIF19932006Merged into IF MetallN/A
Swedish Hairdressers' UnionFAF19061989Merged into Handels4,407
Swedish Healthcare Personnel UnionVårdpers19061970Merged into SF1,557
Swedish Lithographic UnionLitograf19041973Merged into GF4,712
Swedish Metalworkers' UnionMetall18882006Merged into IF Metall234,157
Swedish Mining Industry Workers' UnionGruv18951994Merged into Metall11,939
Swedish National Union of State EmployeesSF19701995Reformed as SEKON/A
Swedish Postal UnionSPF18861970Merged into SF17,986
Swedish Pulp Operators' UnionSP19201946Merged into PappersN/A
Swedish Railway Workers' UnionSJMF18991970Merged into SF64,834
Swedish Road Workers' UnionSVaf19141970Merged into SF16,640
Swedish Saddlemakers' and Upholsterers' UnionSSoT18901962Dissolved5,573
Swedish Sailors' UnionSSF19321996Merged into Seko14,487
Swedish Saw Mill Industry Workers UnionSågverks18971949Merged into SSAFN/A
Swedish Sheet Metal Workers' UnionSBOP18932000Merged into Byggnads3,505
Swedish Shoe and Leather Workers' UnionSSoL18821972Merged into Beklädnads10,882
Swedish Stone Industry Workers' UnionSten18971970Dissolved5,328
Swedish Stucco Workers' UnionStuckatör19041948DissolvedN/A
Swedish Telecommunications UnionSvT19011970Merged into SF20,718
Swedish Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' UnionBeklädnads19721993Merged into IFN/A
Swedish Textile Workers' UnionTextil18981972Merged into Beklädnads41,864
Swedish Tile and Slab Workers' UnionSKoP18911946Merged into FabriksN/A
Swedish Tobacco Workers' UnionTobaks18891964Merged into Livs1,784
Swedish Typographers' UnionTypograf18861973Merged into GF15,804
Swedish Wood Industry Workers' UnionTrä19241998Merged into Skogs- o Trä60,321
Union of Civilian Personnel in National Defence EstablishmentsFCPF19171970Merged into SF20,016
United UnionsDFF19051962Dissolved14,687

List of chairmen

See also

References
  1. Torvald Karlbom Den svenska fackföreningsrörelsen, Stockholm: Tidens förlag, pp. 45-47
  2. Yearly average in 2019. See Anders Kjellberg (2020) Kollektivavtalens täckningsgrad samt organisationsgraden hos arbetsgivarförbund och fackförbund, Department of Sociology, Lund University. Studies in Social Policy, Industrial Relations, Working Life and Mobility. Research Reports 2020:1, Appendix 3 (in English) Table A
  3. Anders Kjellberg "The Decline in Swedish Union Density since 2007" Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies (NJWLS) Vol. 1. No 1 (August 2011), pp. 67-93
  4. Anders Kjellberg and Christian Lyhne Ibsen (2016) "Attacks on union organizing: Reversible and irreversible changes to the Ghent-systems in Sweden and Denmark", in Trine Pernille Larsen and Anna Ilsøe (eds.)(2016) Den Danske Model set udefra - komparative perspektiver på dansk arbejdsmarkedsregulering, Copenhagen: Jurist- og Økonomforbundets Forlag, p. 292
  5. Kjellberg, Anders (2017). "The Membership Development of Swedish Trade Unions and Union Confederations Since the End of the Nineteenth Century" (PDF). Lund University. p. 188. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  6. Kjellberg, Anders (2017). The Membership Development of Swedish Trade Unions and Union Confederations Since the End of the Nineteenth Century. Lund University. ISBN 9172673109.
  7. Mitchell, James P. (1955). Directory of Labor Organizations: Europe. Washington DC: United States Department of Labor. pp. 27.19–27.34.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.