The agreement will cover more than 400,000 workers who are employed in a wide range of occupations by regional and municipal governments. They include nurses at hospitals and day-care centers; cleaners, cooks, and janitors at day-care centers, hospitals, schools, and public recreational facilities; fire fighters; and other public workers.

Under the agreement, nurses employed at hospitals or providing home care to the elderly will receive a 5 percent wage raise in the first year, while other union members will get 2.6 percent or more. The union had demanded a 5.5 percent raise across the board.

Many details of the agreement will be determined in local negotiations, which always take place under a no-strike pledge.

Some 113,000 workers had taken part in one- or two-week long stoppages in the month following April 23. Union leaders report that these actions were the biggest in the union’s history. The fight to increase their low wages had been at the center of the workers’ demands.

The contract was signed less than a week before announced solidarity strikes by bus drivers, tram drivers and local trains drivers would have expanded the strike, shutting down public transportation in many cities across Sweden.  
 
 
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