BY CARL-ERIK ISACCSSON
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The metalworkers union in Sweden began an overtime ban May 2. The unions representing white collar workers and engineers in the auto and steel industries, the mines, and the electronics and machine shops quickly followed. Nearly 300,000 workers are involved.

The union action is aimed at forcing the employers to grant a modest wage increase of 4 percent for 1995. The employers and the government have said no to any general wage increases. The bosses argue they cannot afford an across-the- board wage increase, and that pay demands should be negotiated company by company. The employers also want to get rid of the minimum wage in national contracts.

The employers want an overall national contract to their liking before the start of company-by-company negotiations, because then the unions will not have the right to strike over local disputes. Swedish laws, in place since 1928, guarantee the owners that advantage over the workers. "This is an all- out attack on the unions," Berra Ahnberg, chairman of the metalworkers union at the Saab-Scania truck plant in Sodertalje, said at a May 2 union meeting.

Workers at the meeting were outraged that mediation by a state commission was to take place during the week and urged union officials to stand strong in the conflict with the employers.

The unions rejected a mediated contract offer of a 1.2 percent wage increase May 7. The employers agreed to this proposal. Negotiations between the unions and the employers will continue this week.

The construction workers' unions announced a selective strike beginning in mid-May. The paper mill workers just signed a two-year contract with a 3.8 percent wage increase each year.

The current wage round and the first outbreak of union resistance in some time are taking place as the social democratic government is attacking the social wage and the export industry is making record profits.

Carl-Erik Isacsson is a member of Local 30 of the metalworkers union at Saab-Scania in Sodertalje.  
 
 
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