‘Much ado about nothing’. Thus Sweden’s 2016 round of negotiations come to calm close after having commenced amid much hot air and controversy. Recalcitrant unions toed the line and kept to the wage changes negotiated by the industries’ unions including a 2.2% wage rise as part of one-year collective agreements.
The voice of reason prevailed. The unions had, unusually for them, started out on the negotiation path in a fragmented fashion with several unions including Byggnads (construction workers) and Målareförbundet (painters) seeking to bargain individually and given their different levels of influence trying to secure wage rises in line with their own specificities. However, following the conclusion of the agreement on 31 March by the ‘facken inom industri’ umbrella group* that set a 2.2% wage incre
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