By BILL HAWKES Trust gives each bur- j sar an extra £25 for two ‘ weeks travel expenses in con- 1 tinental Europe. I decided to / go to, Sweden, and with the _ help of the Central Office of . Information and the Swedish 4 KAT Labour Attache Mr. Klasen, I was invited to visit Sweden as the guest of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and the Forest Workers Un- ion. I spent four days in Stockholm and six in the cen- tre of Sweden. Stockholm is a very beau- tiful city and must be one of the cleanest in the world. You get the impression that it is regularly and_ thoroughly washed. As it is built on is- lands you are never far from | water and unlike most sea- ports the water is also clean. There are many parks and green squares, tubs of plants > and flowers set out in the ' streets, and attractive shop- ping centres. All of this, coupled with the fact that Stockholm has more than its fair share of beautiful wom- en, makes it a very pleasing city to the eye. IMPERSONAL However, while all large cities tend to be impersonal, Stockholm struck me as being more so than most. It is very beautiful but, to me, it seemed to lack atmos- phere or character and while LT admired it I didn’t feel any regret on leaving it. There seems to be very little night life in Stockholm and what there is, is expen- Sive. This is a noticeable con- trast to England. I under- Stand that in Sweden most of the social life takes place in the homes, there are also clubs for activities, where in England a great deal of the ' Social life takes place in pub- » lic, the pubs, movies, football matches, dog races, etc. ORGANIZATION Tn the field of industrial re- lations Sweden is noted for a degree of organization and strong central bodies, both for the unions and the employers. The two main trade union confederations are the Landsorganisationen i ‘Sverige (L.0.) which is made up of unions whose members are mainly manual workers, and the Tjanstemannens Cen- tratorganisation (T. C. O.) whose member unions cater for the clerical workers and Supervisory officials. Over _ 90% of the manual workers members of unions be- x to the L.O. and over of the salaried employ- belong to unions within > T.C.O. Even army officers 1g to a union. the L.O. and the — THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER “) AND FROM SWEDEN BILL HAWKES, a member of Local 1-85 1WA and Camp Chairman at the Franklin River Division of MacMillan, Bloedel and Powell River, who left last April to spend six months in the United Kingdom on a bursary offered by the Imperial Relations Trust, has submitted a Series of articles describing conditions as he found them in his travels. The following is the fifth article in the series. Swedish Employers Confed- eration (S.A.F.) have far more power over their mem- ber unions and companies than is common in most free countries. For example un- ions can not call a strike that would affect more than 3% of their members without the permission of the L.O. Em- ployers can’t lockout without the permission of the S.AF. In the event of a union not complying with the 3% rule, the L.O. could expel the un- ion and withhold strike relief, help for the strike would not be forthcoming from other unions in this case. The S.AF. can not only expel a member who fails to live up to the agreements (both their own internal one and those signed with the unions) but in some cases it has the power to fine member employers. It should be pointed out that while the L.O. has a great deal of constitutional power over its member un- ions, in practice it uses this power very sparingly and in general the L.O. prefers to persuade. L.O.’s real power lies in the pressure of the movements opinion rather than in its power to expel or to withhold strike relief. ACCEPTED The structure of both the L.O. and the S.A.F. are large- ly the result of Sweden’s la- bour history. The employers organized to prevent union- ism among their employees and for a time were very successful. This forced the unions to organize in large industrial units with a strong central body in order to have the strength to combat the employers. One thing that is different from North America in the Swedish pattern of industrial relations is that employers no longer try to prevent union - organization, indeed they ac- cept it fully, and the em- ployers’ organization would not help its members in such activities as refusing to recog- nise a union or refusing to sign the standard industry agreement. Moreover, in talk- ing to some union officers, I was told that in the event that an individual employer was not living up to the agreement that had been signed between the L.O. and the S.A.F. the employers’ or- ganization would bring him into line, The unions which make up the L.O. decided that wage negotiations by individual BILL HAWKES trade unions made it difficult for the movement as a whole to achieve lasting long-term gains, and that in the long run, wage differentials were widening in a way which they felt was socially unjust. Therefore, since 1953, they have bargained centrally with the S.A.F. and signed a gen- eral agreement covering all the workers, in all the unions which make up the L.O. To put it simply, the gen- eral principles for action are drawn up at a conference of delegates prior to negotia- tions, after which the individ- ual unions authorize the L.O. to .negotiate for them. The terms negotiated by the L.O. are then laid down in a gen- eral agreement with the Em- ployers Confederation. This provides the frame-work for the collective agreements of the individual unions, who then negotiate the provisions of the general agreement within their particular agree- ments with individual em- ployers. TACTICS The tactics used by the un- ions and the form of the gen- eral agreement will vary from one time to another. A gen- eral agreement may provide for a wage increase which is the same for all unions with the exception of some low paid wage group who will re- ceive extra increases, or the Wage increase might be a per- centage increase with the provision that it cannot be below a certain sum. Often, in a general agreement the hourly rate will be dealt with separately from piecework rates, or it may refer only to average rates. In the last case the individual unions have a great deal of scope for negot- jation and in establishing the increases for the various groups they represent can do so in a way that will increase some groups more than others while still remaining within the average for the industry. The majority of trade un- ionists I talked to were in favour of central negotiations and felt that through them they were, in the long run, able to achieve greater and more lasting gains. They did admit that in some cases cer- tain groups could have made larger gains individually than those they received under the general agreement, and that some employers in expanding industries could afford to pay more than they were requir- ed to by the central agree- ment. However, they count- ered this with the claim that through central agreements ‘the low wage groups could and were being brought up faster to the national average, and that employers in mar- ginal industries or ‘services could not plead poverty, but either had to become efficient enough to meet the general standard or get out of busi- ness. SUCCESS The result of central negot- iations have not been an un- qualified success, while they have resulted in a higher standard of living for those people in the traditional low paying industries, such as stores, restaurants etc., they have not eliminated large dif- ferences in take-home pay for comparative skills in dif- ferent industries. Most collective agreements provide that piece work is to be used whenever possible, and almost seventy-five per cent of Swedish manual workers are on piece work rates. Sweden not only has full employment but in many areas there is a large short- POSTAL OTTAWA — Judge J. C. Anderson’s final report on his inquiry into postal employees’ rates of pay has come out with recommendations for granting full bargaining rights, including the right to strike, to postal employees, and for the reorganization of the Post Office department as a Crown corporation. An- other commission headed by Judge Andre Montpetit is presently looking into work- ing conditions in the Post Of- fice department. age of labour. This has result- ed in “wage drift.’ (The dif- ference between actual earn- ings and the earnings that were expected to result from the negotiated agreement). Workers in high profit indust- ries have been able to get piece work rates which raise their take-home pay consider- ably above the agreed in- crease, while workers in other industries, such as forestry, have not been able to raise their wages in this manner. Naturally they are unhappy about this. There has been consider- able attention given to job evaluation and merit rating. Work study in general was the subject of an agreement between the L.O. and S.A-F. in 1948 but there has been a great deal of opposition to it and there are many who contend that it is not possible to ‘measure work scientific- ally. FOR GRANTED It is not possible in a short report to give a complete pic- ture of Swedish industrial re- lations. For any who are in- terested the International La- bour Office sent a mission to Sweden in 1960 and publish- ed a report on “The Trade Union Situation in Sweden” in 1961. While in a few de- tails it may be a little out of date it is worthwhile reading. To sum up briefly — in Sweden trade unionism and good industrial relations are taken for granted. This has been done with very little labour legislation. One thing which has helped to bring this about has been realiza- tion by the employers that both their interests and the interests of the nation as a whole benefit by frank and honest relations with the trade unions. —EE—E_EE Oe HANEY Regional First Vice-Presi- dent Jack MacKenzie will be. the guest speaker at the Dec. 11 meeting of IWA Local 1-367 Haney. The meeting will be held in the IOOF Hall in Mission City at 1:30 p.m. The main item of business will be the adoption of a new set of by-laws and all local members are u~sed to turn out and offer their constructive suggestions. a ee eh TOWNS ’ “The problems of urbaniza- tion which confront Canada are the equivalent of building 20 new towns of 20,000 every 10 years . . . In the next 20 years we will build as much brick and mortar as has been built in the whole recorded history of Canada.” —Canadian Architect Norm son in "Ontario Housing.’ eee