I’ve written this in other threads so it will just be a repetition for a lot of you who are following how the story unfolds.
Here in Sweden we don’t have any laws defining “minimum wage” and some laws regulating things like minimum amount of vacation days can be “replaced” in an agreement.
Now, the idea is that the parties of the labour market, employers and employees should deal with these issues because
politicians should stay the f*** away from things they know nothing about.
The agreement is normally renegotiated by the employer organisations (yes, the employers are also organized here) and employee organisations (unions) every 2-3 years.
While signing an collective agreement is not mandatory it is still expected.
It’s the norm.
In my experience employers refuse to agree on collective minimums is because they want to be able to do whatever they want with their employees.
But the reason we have those things is also because of the way our workforce is organised. Had we not been so well organised we wouldn’t have structured society in such a way.
The big problem comes when participation in the union goes down. The lower the number of active members, the lower the quality of candidates in important positions. There’s an issue with that going around which pretty much all of society is working on. Corruption is of course a thing in places of society to some extent but with high trust in the system comes a self-correctiveness that helps stave it off some. What also helps is building robust processes for voting and handling issues, which Sweden has done in most if not all of our democratic institutions.
Tesla/Musk really went for the “I have the right to not use collective bargaining” and is really shocked to find out people went for “we have the right to strike”.
I’ve written this in other threads so it will just be a repetition for a lot of you who are following how the story unfolds.
Here in Sweden we don’t have any laws defining “minimum wage” and some laws regulating things like minimum amount of vacation days can be “replaced” in an agreement.
Now, the idea is that the parties of the labour market, employers and employees should deal with these issues because politicians should stay the f*** away from things they know nothing about. The agreement is normally renegotiated by the employer organisations (yes, the employers are also organized here) and employee organisations (unions) every 2-3 years. While signing an collective agreement is not mandatory it is still expected. It’s the norm.
In my experience employers refuse to agree on collective minimums is because they want to be able to do whatever they want with their employees.
To add to this, all of this is possible because we have great social security, healthcare and other things are NOT associated with your job.
But the reason we have those things is also because of the way our workforce is organised. Had we not been so well organised we wouldn’t have structured society in such a way.
You seem to know a bit about how this all works there, so I’ll ask the question here:
So in the US, unions used to be really strong. With this however, eventually came mass corruption in the unions.
How is this corruption prevented there? Is there a body of some sort that keeps all the unions in line? Or?
The big problem comes when participation in the union goes down. The lower the number of active members, the lower the quality of candidates in important positions. There’s an issue with that going around which pretty much all of society is working on. Corruption is of course a thing in places of society to some extent but with high trust in the system comes a self-correctiveness that helps stave it off some. What also helps is building robust processes for voting and handling issues, which Sweden has done in most if not all of our democratic institutions.
We have very low corruption in Sweden, rank 5 on the index compared to 24 for the US.
When one of our top politicians bought a Toblerone with her government card it was a big scandal.
Wow. That boggles the mind… I respect this so much.
Where I am? We have this kind of crap and nobody really seems to care: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/excessive-reactions-to-pennsylvania-lawmaker-s-reported-mileage/ar-AA1l0pIu
I feel for ya!
Things are moving in the wring direction in Sweden and a culture against corruption is so important as a wave break.
Sadly I have no answers to your situation except to say that fundamentally changing culture is a long and arduous journey.
Keep fighting brother ✊
Tesla/Musk really went for the “I have the right to not use collective bargaining” and is really shocked to find out people went for “we have the right to strike”.
I will not be blackmailed by the collective! Fuck You! Earth will remember this!
The whole earth comment is so fucking cringe