Documents

The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) representing 1.5 million members condemns the arrests of Lee Cheuk Yan, General Secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) and two other democrats, Yeung Sum and Jimmy Lai. Lee, Yeung and Lai face charges of “unlawful assembly” for their participation in the public rally on 31 August 2019 to oppose the extradition bill amendment. 

The Swedish collective agreement model is based on the regulation of wages and conditions in agreements between trade union and employer organisations. While combining security and sound conditions, the model also creates growth and prosperity. However, our model is influenced by the rest of the world, including the EU. The Central trade union confederations in Sweden have a positive approach to the EU and are convinced that European cooperation can contribute to sustainable growth and employment. On the other hand, fundamental trade union rights must be guaranteed and our labour market model safeguarded. This publication provides basic information about the Swedish collective agreement model and highlights some aspects of importance in relation to the EU.  

Violence against women must stop, full stop. Trade Unions across Europe fully support the call on the European Union to do all it can to fight violence against women. This is the message from ETUC to Ms Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and to Commissioner Ms Helena Dalli. 

The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) is an association of national union organisations – national unions. As the common organisation for the affiliated national unions, LO’s task is to lead and coordinate the endeavours of LO and its affiliated national unions to safeguard workers’ interests in the labour market and in business and industry. 

The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) and the Swedish Transport Workers’ Union have over the recent years followed closely the Iranian workers’ struggle for the creation of free and independent trade union organisations and their protests against unpaid wages and against the infringement of fundamental trade union and human rights in Iran.

This report provides an insight in how the EU Combined Transport Directive is used in practice in Sweden. Contrary to its intentions, the Directive provides a loophole for ignoring social sustainability. 

LO's policy programme and decisions in the field of international activities and climate issues, adopted at the 28th STatutory Congress of LO, in June 2016 

The European Commission has presented a White Paper on the Future of Europe, the purpose of which is to promote discussion on the future shape and areas of EU cooperation. LO,TCO and Saco welcome the Commission’s initiative for inclusive and broad discussion on the shaping of future EU priorities and development. 

This is a summary of LO’s gender equality report of 2017 “Sweden’s gender equality barometer – Time, power and money”. A report that highlights conditions of work and family life from a class and gender perspective. The aim is to describe the material conditions and power resources that underlie the scope of action available to women and men in different social groups. Or as expressed in the Swedish government’s gender equality policy objectives; the power to shape society and your own life. 

We cannot accept an EU where we compete with wages and working conditions. Instead, we must fight to ensure that everyone who works in Sweden is treated equally. This is why we demand that a social progress protocol be incorporated in the EU treaties. A social progress protocol that strengthens member states’ control over the labour market. A social progress protocol that guarantees that Swedish wages and working conditions will apply to all who work in Sweden. 

The Nordic Model for Dummies is based on the NordMod2030 research project, undertaken by the Fafo Institute for Labour and Science Research and a Nordic research team for SAMAK and Foundation for European Progressive Studies FEPS. SAMAK is the Nordic Labour Movement Organisation, with 5 million members from social democratic parties and trade union organisations in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. You will find more on NordMod2030 and SAMAK at www.samak.info. Here you will also find the Sørmarka Declaration “We Build the Nordics”, a social democratic and trade union political roadmap for the future Nordics.  

It all began with a vow: “We do solemnly swear that we will never under any circumstances work for lower wages or under worse conditions than what we now promise one another. We make this vow, in the secure knowledge that if we all are true to our pledge the employer will be forced to meet our demands.” 

Allowing income gaps to grow has been detrimental to economic stability in many countries and produced a breeding ground for populism and protectionism. This is a warning bell for all of us who defend openness, international trade and a sound market economy. Inequality is bad for business and sooner or later it leads to mistrust and political upheaval. This is the message of a new LO report presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in January 2017. 

Based on a number of real-life cases the report illustrates some of the most important mechanisms that contribute to dirty competition , that is competition with lower wages and worse working conditions, in the Swedish labour market. The circumstances and in many cases tragic human destinies described in the report are not unique to Sweden. Throughout Europe, in the EU internal market, various methods of exploiting the differences in pay and terms of employment have emerged.  

Over time, the expression “the Swedish model” has come to be used to refer to almost everything that may be seen as having distinctive Swedish characteristics. But countries’ different models have historical and cultural roots. People in other countries as a rule prefer “their” model.  

Something new is taking place in labour markets around the world. At least since the end of the 1990s, both low-skill and high-skill jobs are increasing, while middle-skill jobs are decreasing. This is called job polarisation and means that we are moving towards an hourglass-shaped labour market. 

LO's vision is to create an EU that takes the lead in pursuing an economic policy of full employment and sustainable development. For a development that guarantees regulation on the labour market as well as democracy and transparency. 

More than six years have passed since the acute financial crash in autumn 2008. The international economy is still coloured by the repercussions of the crisis. Central banks have put in place major monetary policy stimulation measures. In the euro area an ill-designed austerity policy has been implemented that has held back economic recovery and counteracted the more active monetary policy.  

2014-05-26 Painter and trade unionist Sharokh Zamani, imprisoned and harassed by the Iranian regime, who started a hunger strike in March and whom LO and member unions have supported through a petition on the LO website, has ended his hunger strike.