The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (Swedish: Landsorganisationen i Sverige, lit. 'The National Organisation in Sweden'), commonly referred to as LO, is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for thirteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly "blue-collar" workers. The Confederation, which gathers around 1.5 million employees out of Sweden's 10 million people population, was founded in 1898 by blue-collar unions on the initiative of the 1897 Scandinavian Labour Congress and the Swedish Social Democratic Party, which almost exclusively was made up by trade unions. In 2019 union density of Swedish blue-collar workers was 60%, a decline by seventeen percentage points since 2006 when blue-collar union density was 77%. A strong contributing factor was the considerably raised fees to union unemployment funds in January 2007 made by the new centre-right government.
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Organisation
The thirteen affiliates of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation span both the private and the public sector. The member unions are fully independent, with the role of the Confederation limited to the co-ordination of wage bargaining, international activities, trade union education and other areas. Another important task is to promote the organisation's views to decision-makers and the general public. It also has representatives on the governing bodies of many government authorities. The Confederation is also responsible for research and signing labour market insurance schemes. The member unions, however, carry the responsibility for the administration of the unemployment insurance funds.
While its Danish sister organisation, the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions, cut its formal ties to the country's Social Democratic party in 1995, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation maintains a strong cooperation with the Social Democrats. Although the organisations are independent from each other, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation has a representative on the party's executive committee elected by the Party Congress. Also, both the Confederation and the member unions contribute substantial amounts of money to the party.
Until 1987 there was a system of collective membership in the Social Democratic Party for members in the confederation, in which the local union could apply for membership in the Social Democratic Party, effectively enrolling all its members into the Social Democratic Party. (An individual could decline to be part of this collective membership.)
In 1942, the confederation started publishing the evening newspaper Aftontidningen, intended to serve as a social democratic counterweight to Aftonbladet, known for its sympathies with Nazi Germany. In 1956, Aftonbladet along with Stockholms-Tidningen was acquired by confederation, changing their political profiles to social democracy. In 1996, it sold 49.9 percent of the stocks in Aftonbladet to Norwegian media company Schibsted. In 2009 Schibsted acquired an additional 41.1 percent of the stocks, making the confederation a minority owner with 9 percent of the stocks. However, an agreement was made as a part of the sales deal, ensuring that the confederation would continue their influence over the political stance of the editorial page, preserving Aftonbladets social democratic profile.
The number of member unions has been reduced by mergers. Most recently the Swedish Painters' Union merged into the Swedish Building Workers' Union in May 2024
Affiliates
List of chairmen
Fredrik Sterky, 1898–1900
Herman Lindqvist, 1900–1920
Arvid Thorberg, 1920–1930
Edvard Johanson, 1930–1936
Albert Forslund, February–September 1936
August Lindberg, 1936–1947
Axel Strand, 1947–1956
Arne Geijer, 1956–1973
Gunnar Nilsson, 1973–1983
Stig Malm, 1983–1993
Bertil Jonsson, 1994–2000
Wanja Lundby-Wedin, 2000–2012
Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson, 2012–2020
Susanna Gideonsson, 2020–2024
Johan Lindholm, 2024–present