{"id":14,"date":"2008-07-02T12:54:37","date_gmt":"2008-07-02T16:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/?p=14"},"modified":"2018-08-14T15:23:36","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T15:23:36","slug":"the-power-of-unions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/the-power-of-unions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Unions"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not a happy day in Stockholm today. Why? Bus drivers are on strike. It\u2019s actually day two of no buses, and from the looks of it, it will continue a little bit longer. And if no agreement is reached, the strike may spread to other parts of the country. I\u2019ve just read that here in V\u00e4sterbotten<\/strong> the walk-out is tentatively scheduled for next Tuesday.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the reason behind all this? As always \u2013 money. Or rather, not enough of it. The bus drivers\u2019 union \u2013 Kommunal<\/a><\/strong>, and the employer \u2013 Bussarbetsgivarna<\/strong> can\u2019t quite agree on a new contract, in other words \u2013 the usual stuff.<\/p>\n

The public at large, even though inconvenienced, seems very supportive of the drivers\u2019 strike. The tourists, however, are another story. A friend of mine who\u2019s in Stockholm bemoans the fact she foolishly bought a transit pass. I told her to ride the metro instead. But happens when you want to visit tourist destinations that are only accessible by bus? Rent a car? No? I didn\u2019t think so. You\u2019re simply going to skip those. And as a result, the biggest losers will be people working at popular tourist sites, nearby shops and restaurants. Such is life\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last summer it was SAS<\/strong> (Scandinavian Airlines) employees striking, this summer it\u2019s bus drivers\u2026 Never a dull moment.<\/p>\n

Sweden, same as France for example, is a highly unionized country. There are trade unions for just about every profession imaginable, including an organization for students and people who are unemployed or retired. Their main function is to protect workers\u2019 rights, which sometimes \u2013 as we saw today in Stockholm \u2013 can lead to inconveniences for other workers. The sad part is that even with all the unionized collective bargaining in the world, Swedish women still get paid less money than men for doing exactly the same job. But that\u2019s a topic for another day, perhaps.<\/p>\n

So, what do you need to remember about Swedish trade unions?
\nThe largest workers\u2019 confederation in Sweden is the Swedish Trade Union Confederation. In Swedish \u2013 Landsorganisationen i Sverige<\/strong>, and known simply as LO<\/a>. It was founded in 1898 and currently has somewhere around 1.8 million members. It\u2019s an umbrella organization for 15 affiliate unions that cover both the public as well as the private sector.<\/p>\n

The largest individual union is the above mentioned Kommunal<\/strong>. Yep, the guys whose members are currently striking in Stockholm. I can only hope they will settle on a new contract before next week, because a bus strike in V\u00e4sterbotten<\/strong> would be extremely unpleasant, indeed. We don\u2019t have trains to use instead of buses, and for many small countryside communities, buses are their only lifelines. Let\u2019s just hope it\u2019s only our city bus drivers that will stage a walk-out. During summer the services are so infrequent anyway, that I seriously doubt anyone will even notice.<\/p>\n

Here are some interesting words that you may want to remember:<\/p>\n

fackf\u00f6rening<\/strong> = trade union
\nBecause it\u2019s an \u201cen<\/strong>\u201d word, the definite form is \u201cfackf\u00f6reningen<\/strong>\u201d.
\nSometimes, only the short version \u201cfack<\/strong>\u201d is used. (I know that it doesn\u2019t sound nice, but trust me, it\u2019s a perfectly innocent word in Swedish.)
\n Fack<\/strong> is an \u201cett<\/strong>\u201d word, so the definite form is \u201cfacket<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

avtal<\/strong> (def. avtalet<\/strong>) = agreement, contract
\n kollektivavtal<\/strong> (def. kollektivavtalet<\/strong>) = collective agreement (on wages, salaries, etc.)<\/p>\n

photo: Scanpix<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not a happy day in Stockholm today. Why? Bus drivers are on strike. It\u2019s actually day two of no buses, and from the looks of it, it will continue a little bit longer. And if no agreement is reached, the strike may spread to other parts of the country. I\u2019ve just read that here…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3143,3424,3428,3485,3513,172],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","tag-contract","tag-stockholm","tag-strike","tag-trade-unions","tag-wages","tag-work"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8252,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions\/8252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}