Per-Olof Sjöö (born 1968) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

trade union leader. Sjöö worked as a fitter in a window factory near

Växjö Växjö () is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden. It had 71,282 inhabitants (2020) out of a Municipalities of Sweden, municipal population of 97,349 (2024). It is the administrative, cultural, and industrial ce ...

, and joined the Swedish Forest and Wood Workers' Union. In 2000, he became the union's contract secretary. In 2009, the union merged into the new GS, and Sjöö was elected as its first president. In 2012, he was additionally appointed as chair of 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 ...

(LO) Union to Union international solidarity campaign, serving until 2016. Sjöö's international work soon attracted attention, and in particular he helped workers at the

IKEA IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services. IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...

plant in

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to unionise. For this, he was the first non-American to receive the

American Rights at Work American Rights at Work (ARAW) was a U.S. self-described nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advocates for workers and their right to form unions without interference. ARAW received funding from unions affiliated with both the AFL-CIO and ...

's Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award. In 2013, he was elected as president of the

Building and Wood Workers' International The Building and Wood Workers' International (BWI) is the global union federation of democratic and free trade unions in the building industry, building, building materials, wood industry, wood, forestry and allied industries. History The fede ...

. In 2015, he was awarded the Swedish Development Forum Prize. He also served on the board of LO. He lives in a union-owned apartment in central Stockholm.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sjöö, Per-Olof 1968 births Living people Swedish trade unionists