Swedish Trade Unions

Swedish unions do not rely much on formal organizing campaigns; employees join either of their own ..... or as a result of group pressure.

Being outside a union is a risky business, as unions control much of labour regulation; though any form of ..... against non-unionized employees is against the law, it can be hidden by employers acting together with unions.

Unionization rates in the service sector are significantly lower than in industry, at least among blue-collar workers; still, they ..... around 70 per cent, a figure that is high enough not to cause serious union worry.

Atypical work has ..... and now accounts for some 30 to 35 per cent of total employment; however, atypical employees are unionized to the same extent as others, perhaps slightly more so.

The reason seems to be that they are more ..... to exploitation and so have more to gain from union membership.

Effective collective ..... arrangements exist in all sectors of the economy.

Even the temporary work business is unionized and covered by a ..... collective agreement.

The greatest difficulty is to make salaries respond to changes in market demand: the pay structure is highly ..... in the sense that it is extremely difficult to change the relative level of different categories of employees.

If one union manages to negotiate extra high pay increases for its members, perhaps due to market forces, all other unions will immediately demand - and fight hard for - the same increase, threatening to ..... the initial effect.

Unions have a ..... monopoly on collective pay regulation since there is no free labour market in the sense of a market not governed by collective agreements.