The Swedish Union of Clerical and Technical Employees in Industry (Sif, formerly ''Svenska Industritjänstemannaförbundet'') was the largest

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

for white-collar workers in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. Founded on 21 June 1920 at a conference in

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland. The city is the seat of Jönköping Municipali ...

, the union set up headquarters in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

, but moved to Stockholm in 1932. It stated its primary goal as being "to guarantee a good working life for its members". A main priority was taking part in the

collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The i ...

process. Workplace health and safety issues, competence and career issues were other major concerns. The organization also played an active part lobbying politicians in the interest of its members. On formation, the union had just 653 members. It grew steadily, absorbing the Association of Stockholm Technicians in 1930, the Association of Timber Industry Employees in 1937, the National Association of Oil Employees in 1938, and the Swedish Association of Works Employees in 1940. It had 36,500 members in 1945, 107,136 in 1960, and a peak of 305,297 in 2001. The members worked in the private sector, in companies that operated in areas including IT, telecom, construction, manufacturing and research and development. A small number was self-employed. Membership was also open to students. Around 40 percent of the members were women, as was the final President, Mari-Ann Krantz, who after the fusion with HTF became the first President of

Unionen Unionen is a Swedish white-collar trade union. The union was formed on 1 January 2008, when the Swedish Union of Commercial Salaried Employees merged with the Swedish Union of Clerical and Technical Employees in Industry. Like both its pred ...

. The organization was not only one of the largest labour unions in Sweden, it was also one of the wealthiest. It had funds worth several hundred million dollars, allowing the union to set aside substantial money for large ad campaigns with the object of recruiting new members. The organization had in the end of its existence 20 Regional Divisions with 23 local offices around Sweden and approximately 2.500 local union branches in the workplaces. About half the members did not belong to a local branch but could turn to a workplace representative acting as a point of contact and a channel for information. The highest decision-making body was the Congress, held every four years. It consisted of 180 elected representatives from the workplaces. The Congress elected the 11 representatives of the Sif Executive. The Swedish Union of Clerical and Technical Employees in Industry maintained independence from party politics. The organization was an affiliate of the

Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees The Confederation of Professional Employees ( sv, Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation, TCO) is a national trade union centre, the umbrella organization, umbrella organisation for 13 trade unions in Sweden that organise professional and other qual ...

. It was also a member of several international industrial federations, such as

Union Network International UNI Global Union, formerly Union Network International (UNI), is a global union federation for the skills and services sectors, gathering national and regional trade union. It has affiliated unions in 150 countries representing 20 million workers ...

, a federation of unions in the IT, telecom, media & entertainment and graphics sector. In 2008, the union merged with the Swedish Union of Commercial Salaried Employees to form

References

{{Trade unions in Sweden navbox Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees UNI Global Union Trade unions in Sweden Clerical trade unions Trade unions established in 1920 Trade unions disestablished in 2008

See also

References