News

The UNI Commerce affiliate “Handels” was forced by the employers’ stalling tactics to take out a strike warning and it was only the day before the strike was supposed to begin that the Svensk Handel returned to the table and accepted the proposal made by a neutral mediator. Chairman Lars-Anders Häggström is proud of the agreement which secures a wage increase of 4.7% for the retail sector and 3.7% for the wholesale sector. The agreement also include improvements of working conditions in general and later Handels will meet with Svensk Handel to plan a 1-year internship for young people to ease their way into the labour market.



For UNI Commerce this deal is interesting because it positively affect workers in key multinational companies like IKEA and H&M, which both are companies with well organised European Works Councils. Furthermore, the deal is important as it demonstrates that even though the global crisis has been tough on the commerce sector, the global companies have done reasonably well in the retail and wholesale sector and are often not in position where they in good faith can use the global crisis as an argument and a short cut to increase efficiency. Because of the global nature of the commerce sector it is a sector which over the past 15 years have been highly competitive and thus even before the crisis, was influenced by the need to be extremely efficient.

That the global retailers have done comparatively well is evidence of the efficiency of the business models already employed, and the great work done by the trade unions in the sector to accomodate the work force to the corporate needs.









You can read more about the result of the collective bargaining (in Swedish) at:

www.handels.se (the press statement)

http://www.handelsnytt.se/Huvudnyhet/Nyttavtalgermest%C3%A5tl%C3%A5gavl%C3%B6nade/tabid/1530/Default.aspx

http://www.handelsnytt.se/Huvudnyhet/Visstf%C3%A5rmanvaran%C3%B6jdr%C3%B6steromavtalet/tabid/1532/Default.aspx