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12 December, 2000Three different local trade unions, one blue-collar and two white-collar, have begun close cooperation at one of the Swedish multinationals, Ericsson Microwave Systems, in Mölndal.
By Stig Jutterström
The yellow 18th century wood building stands in a leafy forest, where the green of summer is turning into autumn's golden colours. The building contains the offices of two local union branches at Ericsson Microwave Systems in the small town of Mölndal, on the West Coast of Sweden - Metall (manual workers) and SIF (non-manual workers). Metall occupies the ground floor and SIF the floor above.
An ultra-modern factory
At the end of next year, they will be moving to new premises in an ultra-modern new factory which Ericsson is building a kilometer away to produce radar systems for the Swedish defence forces. At present, the 550 employees are scattered over some 15 sites.
"What we hope to do is to merge into a single union branch," says Arne Löfving, who has presided the Metall workers' branch for ten years. "We are currently exploring the possibility of forming one single union branch without boundaries."
Per-Erik Jörgensen, who for four years has been president of the SIF branch, believes that the project is of symbolic importance. The branch office of the third union, CF, the civil engineers led by its president, Christer Lund, is located elsewhere, but they are also involved in this unique joint project.
"We can't really call it a factory," says Löfving, who prefers the longer, more complex term production facility. It will be a highly specialised building, which will scarcely look like a factory. Manufacture will concentrate on a handful of products made in short batches but with long life expectancy. It will be a modern workplace with integrated working methods. Planning, construction and production will be integrated, and the old division into individual tasks will be a matter of the past. And so will the traditional division between various personnel categories -- "workers" and "staff". Employees will exchange jobs, crossing the old trade union boundaries. "Trade union demarcation lines will become less important. The important matter is to work together between unions," says Per-Erik Jörgensen.
Why three different unions?
This is why the three union branches at Ericsson in Mölndal have especially good prospects for their pioneering approach. "New employees will not fit into any particular collective bargaining agreement category," declares Arne Löfving. "They move around the workplace doing jobs that go across agreements. Young people do call the union into question anyway. They particularly ask why we have three different unions. They don't understand why they should be ruled by union boundaries set up in the 1970s. We owe it to them to reassess the role of trade unions, and create new rules and conditions which are better adapted to modern high-tech industries."
He is convinced that if the unions were started today they would not be split into three, and there would just be the one branch. A creative workplace
"We want to produce a creative workplace where we and our jobs can develop," says Per-Erik Jörgensen. "Occasionally some people don't want to take on new assignments, because they are worried about being transferred to another union. This obstructs flexibility in the workplace, development within the company and for individual members," says Arne Löfving. The level of unionisation varies somewhat between the three branches: 95 per cent of metalworkers are members of Metall, 85 per cent of engineers with university degrees belong to CF, and 75 per cent of all other white-collar workers are members of SIF. Union dues are different too; metalworkers, who on average have the lowest wages, pay the highest dues.
Remove class barriers
The three pioneering branches are supported by their national unions. SIF's president, Mari-Ann Krantz, is determinedly promoting the slogan "one company, one union" (see interview, page 22-25). The Metalworkers' president, Göran Johnsson, is warning against letting the changed realities in the workplace lead to a new kind of class barrier. "Trade unions were started to remove class barriers. When different jobs begin to get closer to each other in industry, we mustn't keep the class barriers but make sure they disappear." Jöran Tjernell, CF's managing director, believes it is excellent that the three branches are cooperating locally. He is encouraging them to work much more closely together, which they could do through a joint branch. "However, the CF branch must not break away from the union's constitution."
After hearing about this project, a number of branches in other companies are watching with interest to see what's happening.
Many practical problems
Those in charge of the project are hesitant to say exactly what goals they have in mind at present: do they to have only the single union branch or to create a joint collaborative body? Is there to be one single collective bargaining agreement, or three with similar terms? And they don't know what the members want. What they do know is that there are many practical problems which must be resolved along the road to the goal, which remains uncertain, and that many traditional union presumptions must be challenged.
"A number of older members are warning us that Metall's identity will disappear, and that we will become a bland white-collar trade union," declares Arne Löfving, the president of the metalworkers' branch. "But I don't think that the white-collar unions are bland."
"We are worried about too much collective thinking, and about Metall's political affiliation to the Social Democratic Party," says SIF's Per-Erik Jörgensen.
The same basic conditions
"The engineers are mostly concerned about salaries," their branch president Christer Lund points out. "At present, they have individual contracts with highly differentiated salaries." But all three agree that the drawbacks of the current divisions are greater. Per-Erik Jörgensen believes that the old boundaries inhibit reskilling and work rotation. "It should also become easier to recruit new personnel."
Arne Löfving thinks that the current differences in working conditions create tensions between different groups of employees. "All should have the same basic conditions," he says, and he is convinced that the trade union map of Sweden will look different in ten years' time. "It'll all be reorganised - and someone's got to do the pioneering work."
An ultra-modern factory
At the end of next year, they will be moving to new premises in an ultra-modern new factory which Ericsson is building a kilometer away to produce radar systems for the Swedish defence forces. At present, the 550 employees are scattered over some 15 sites.
"What we hope to do is to merge into a single union branch," says Arne Löfving, who has presided the Metall workers' branch for ten years. "We are currently exploring the possibility of forming one single union branch without boundaries."
Per-Erik Jörgensen, who for four years has been president of the SIF branch, believes that the project is of symbolic importance. The branch office of the third union, CF, the civil engineers led by its president, Christer Lund, is located elsewhere, but they are also involved in this unique joint project.
"We can't really call it a factory," says Löfving, who prefers the longer, more complex term production facility. It will be a highly specialised building, which will scarcely look like a factory. Manufacture will concentrate on a handful of products made in short batches but with long life expectancy. It will be a modern workplace with integrated working methods. Planning, construction and production will be integrated, and the old division into individual tasks will be a matter of the past. And so will the traditional division between various personnel categories -- "workers" and "staff". Employees will exchange jobs, crossing the old trade union boundaries. "Trade union demarcation lines will become less important. The important matter is to work together between unions," says Per-Erik Jörgensen.
Why three different unions?
This is why the three union branches at Ericsson in Mölndal have especially good prospects for their pioneering approach. "New employees will not fit into any particular collective bargaining agreement category," declares Arne Löfving. "They move around the workplace doing jobs that go across agreements. Young people do call the union into question anyway. They particularly ask why we have three different unions. They don't understand why they should be ruled by union boundaries set up in the 1970s. We owe it to them to reassess the role of trade unions, and create new rules and conditions which are better adapted to modern high-tech industries."
He is convinced that if the unions were started today they would not be split into three, and there would just be the one branch. A creative workplace
"We want to produce a creative workplace where we and our jobs can develop," says Per-Erik Jörgensen. "Occasionally some people don't want to take on new assignments, because they are worried about being transferred to another union. This obstructs flexibility in the workplace, development within the company and for individual members," says Arne Löfving. The level of unionisation varies somewhat between the three branches: 95 per cent of metalworkers are members of Metall, 85 per cent of engineers with university degrees belong to CF, and 75 per cent of all other white-collar workers are members of SIF. Union dues are different too; metalworkers, who on average have the lowest wages, pay the highest dues.
Remove class barriers
The three pioneering branches are supported by their national unions. SIF's president, Mari-Ann Krantz, is determinedly promoting the slogan "one company, one union" (see interview, page 22-25). The Metalworkers' president, Göran Johnsson, is warning against letting the changed realities in the workplace lead to a new kind of class barrier. "Trade unions were started to remove class barriers. When different jobs begin to get closer to each other in industry, we mustn't keep the class barriers but make sure they disappear." Jöran Tjernell, CF's managing director, believes it is excellent that the three branches are cooperating locally. He is encouraging them to work much more closely together, which they could do through a joint branch. "However, the CF branch must not break away from the union's constitution."
After hearing about this project, a number of branches in other companies are watching with interest to see what's happening.
Many practical problems
Those in charge of the project are hesitant to say exactly what goals they have in mind at present: do they to have only the single union branch or to create a joint collaborative body? Is there to be one single collective bargaining agreement, or three with similar terms? And they don't know what the members want. What they do know is that there are many practical problems which must be resolved along the road to the goal, which remains uncertain, and that many traditional union presumptions must be challenged.
"A number of older members are warning us that Metall's identity will disappear, and that we will become a bland white-collar trade union," declares Arne Löfving, the president of the metalworkers' branch. "But I don't think that the white-collar unions are bland."
"We are worried about too much collective thinking, and about Metall's political affiliation to the Social Democratic Party," says SIF's Per-Erik Jörgensen.
The same basic conditions
"The engineers are mostly concerned about salaries," their branch president Christer Lund points out. "At present, they have individual contracts with highly differentiated salaries." But all three agree that the drawbacks of the current divisions are greater. Per-Erik Jörgensen believes that the old boundaries inhibit reskilling and work rotation. "It should also become easier to recruit new personnel."
Arne Löfving thinks that the current differences in working conditions create tensions between different groups of employees. "All should have the same basic conditions," he says, and he is convinced that the trade union map of Sweden will look different in ten years' time. "It'll all be reorganised - and someone's got to do the pioneering work."