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