The Swedish Municipal Workers' Union (), is the largest

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

with 570,000 members, as of 2005. It was created 1910. It is commonly referred to as ''Kommunal'' ("''Municipal''"). The union was founded in Stockholm on 23 January 1910, as a split from the Swedish Factory Workers' Union. Like its predecessor, it affiliated to the

Swedish Trade Union Confederation The Swedish Trade Union Confederation ( ; literally "The National Organisation in Sweden"), commonly referred to as LO (), is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for fourteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly "blue-c ...

. It initially had 1,218 members, but the number grew rapidly. The Swedish Tramwaymen's Union left in 1917, but rejoined the following year. The Swedish Firefighters' Union joined in 1918, then the Swedish Hospital Staff Union split away in 1923, rejoining in 1945. By this point, the union had 59,426 members. The Swedish Vergers' Union joined in 1946, the State Hospital Personnel Union in 1967, the Swedish Chimney Sweeps' Union in 1981, and the

Swedish Agricultural Workers' Union The Swedish Agricultural Workers' Union (, SLF) was a trade union representing farm workers in Sweden. The first Swedish Agricultural Workers' Union was established in 1908, with the merger of the Agricultural Workers' Union of Central Sweden an ...

in 2001. Its peak membership was 651,670 in 1991. As of 2019, it had 500,560 members. The majority of the members are employed by various local-level municipalities. Farm workers and

co-operatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

are also commonly found in this union. Some professions that this union represents are: *

Childcare Child care, also known as day care, is the care and supervision of one or more children, typically ranging from three months to 18 years old. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(ren), childcare typica ...

employees *

Bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

drivers *

Ambulance An ambulance is a medically-equipped vehicle used to transport patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to ...

drivers *

Firefighter A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...

s * Elderly care workers Kommunal was headed between 1996 and 2010 by general secretary Ylva Thörn. She was succeeded by

Annelie Nordström Annelie Nordström, also ''Nordström Eriksson'', (born 12 July 1955) is a Swedish politician who acted as general secretary of the Swedish Municipal Workers' Union from 2010 to 2016. She started her career as a child caretaker in Halmstad and w ...

. Nordström resigned from her post on 20 January 2016 after a corruption scandal involving the union's leadership was exposed. As of 2005, 80% of the union's members are female. A third of the members are under 30 years of age. This is attributed to the representation of

welfare Welfare may refer to: Philosophy *Well-being (happiness, prosperity, or flourishing) of a person or group * Utility in utilitarianism * Value in value theory Economics * Utility, a general term for individual well-being in economics and decision ...

jobs such as child and elderly care workers. In recent history, this union has called two major strikes: * From 28 September to 20 October 1995 a strike was called that affected the sports industry workers in Sweden greatly. Major league

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

was not able to start until the issue was resolved. * Another strike was called in 2003, this time mainly affecting childcare workers. Kommunal is a member of

International Transport Workers' Federation The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is a democratic global union federation of transport workers' trade unions, founded in 1896. In 2017 the ITF had 677 member organizations in 149 countries, representing a combined membership o ...

(ITF),

International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Association The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) is a global union federation of trade unions with members in a variety of industries, many of which relate to food processi ...

(IUF) and

Public Services International Public Services International (PSI) is the global union federation for workers in public services, including those who work in social services, health care, municipal services, central government and public utilities. , PSI has 700 affiliated ...

(PSI).

Chairs

:1910: Ludvig Nordgren :1933: Curt Larsson :1936: Thure Andersson :1937: Peter Söderberg :1948: Gunnar Hallström :1973: Bengt Blomdahl :1978: Sigvard Marjasin :1988: Lillemor Arvidsson :1995: Sten Törnblom :1996:

Ylva Thörn Ylva Thörn (born 2 August 1954) is a Swedish politician and former trade unionist. Born in Åtvidaberg, Thörn became a nursing assistant in 1974, initially in Åtvidaberg and then in Linköping. She joined the Swedish Municipal Workers' Union ...

:2010:

:2016: Tobias Baudin :2021:

Malin Ragnegård Malin may refer to: Places * Malin, Homalin, a village in Sagaing Region, Burma * Rivière du Malin (Malin River), Quebec, Canada * Malin, Xinning (), a Yao ethnic township of Xinning County, Hunan, China * Malin Head, the northernmost point of ...

Hallå där, Malin Ragnegård, ny ordförande i Kommunal
(in Swedish) 2021-11-06

References

{{Authority control Swedish Trade Union Confederation Municipal workers' trade unions Public Services International International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations International Transport Workers' Federation 1910 establishments in Sweden Trade unions established in 1910 Trade unions in Sweden 1910s establishments in Stockholm