pic: måleriföretagen.se
Let the negotiations begin. The Industry Union (Industrifacket) came out today with a demand for a 3% salary increase on a one year contract on behalf of their union members. The response? “Where has the union been this fall?” wondered Peter Hidesten, executive director for Industry Employers, and pointed to the economic downturn underway in the steel and forest industries (DN.se/avtal).
The bid was the opening shot in the yearly negotiation process (avtalsrörelse) between employers and employees across the country. Industrifacket negotiates for 400,000 Swedish workers, a conglomeration of several different workers’ associations – IF Metall, GS, Livs, Unionen and Sveriges Ingenjörs – textile workers’ union, factory workers’ union, forest workers’ union, food industry workers’ union, “unionen” the white collar trade union workers and Sweden’s Engineers.
Peter Hidesten called the bid “completely unrealistic” considering the economic situation. “Instead, he added, it’s time to shift down on salary increases.” However, Marie Nilsson, chair of the metal workers’ union IF Metall, disagreed: “We believe that the raise corresponds well with a responsible salary increase. We’ve contributed to the strengthening industry’s competitiveness over the past few years, so it should be manageable.”
Industrifacket is the first out in the larger negotiation process that is fairly unique to Sweden. The yearly negotiations between employers and worker representatives has been key in preventing massive labor unrest for decades. Traditionally, what Industrifacket gets from the employers’ organization sets the number, or mark (industrimärket), for what other unions can negotiate for. This year, however, the Kommunal union decided not to be a part of Industrifacket’s bargaining, and will handle their own negotiations.
Kommunal, the Swedish Municipal Workers’ Union, speaks for over 500,000 employees at all levels – teachers, nurses, care workers, county administrative workers and more. They chose to not join the Industrifacket side of the table because Industri wouldn’t go along with asking for a higher salary increase for Kommunal members who work in the health, care, and school sectors.
Splitting the employee side of the negotiation force shocked a lot of people, and many thought Kommunal splitting off significantly weakened the employee-side’s bargaining position. Chairperson for Kommunal, Tobias Baudin, stated that he thought they’d do well by negotiating for themselves. “We’re big, strong, and pretty pissed off (Aftonbladet.se/avtal). Also the paper industry workers’ union Pappers, with 13,500 members, pulled out from the employee side, believing that they, too, would be better off negotiating for themselves.
In total, about 2.8 million workers are affected by negotiations that make up the 2020 bargaining period (ekonomifakta.se/avtal). The real negotiations begin soon after the new year.