The Swedish Commercial Employees' Union (, Handels) is

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 ...

's third-largest

blue-collar A blue-collar worker is a person who performs manual labor or skilled trades. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involve manufacturing, retail, warehousing, mining, carpentry, electrical work, custodia ...

union, with some 145,000 members, of whom around 25,000 are retired. Women make up over 70 percent of its membership. The union was established on 15 April 1906, with the merger of the Malmö Goods Exporters' Union, the Lunds Goods Carriers' Union, the Stockholm Dairy Farmers' Union, the Stockholm Bread Carriers' Union, and the Stockholm Beer Drivers' Union. Although it had only 682 members, it was able to employ a full-time president. In 1910, it joined 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 ...

. In 1922, the Swedish Dairy Farmers' Union joined Handels, followed in 1928 by the Press Agency Staff Union, and the Swedish Cinema Staff Union in 1936, although the cinema workers transferred to the

Swedish Musicians' Union The Swedish Musicians' Union (, Musikerna) is a trade union representing musicians in Sweden. The union was founded on 19 December 1907 in Stockholm, with about 700 members. It grew very slowly until World War II, but this changed after it joi ...

in 1952, and the dairy workers transferred to the

Swedish Food Workers' Union The Swedish Food Workers' Union (, Livs) is a trade union representing workers in the food and drink industries in Sweden. The union was founded on 1 January 1922, when the Swedish Bakery and Confectionery Workers' Union merged with the Swedis ...

in 1968. The Swedish Watchmakers' Union joined in 1970, and the Swedish Hairdressers' Union in 1989. Membership peaked at 164,591 in 1993 and has since dropped slightly, standing at 122,274 in 2019. Although the union was founded in 1906, it is in many ways a young organization. A third of its members are under the age of 30; almost half are under the age of 35. The union is active in more than 25,000 different workplaces and represents a wide range of groups and industries. The majority of its members are in the retail sector, but it also organizes groups such as florists, hairdressers, storage and warehouse personnel, opticians, watchmakers, office staff and students in vocational training. Handels negotiates agreements for fair pay and better working conditions. Pay is a major trade union issue, and Handels' ambition is to ensure the introduction of salary structures that are clearly linked to the conditions and work at each workplace. The union's aim is fair pay, and a key objective is the eradication of differences between men’s and women’s salaries.

Presidents

:1937: Einar Carlbring :1942: :S. A. Johansson :1950s: Algot Jönsson :1962: Erik Magnusson :1960s: Karl-Åke Granlund :1975: Börje Heggestad :1982: Bengt Lloyd :1991: Kenth Pettersson :1999: Ninel Jansson :2005: Lars Anders Häggström :2014: Susanna Gideonsson :2020: Linda Palmetzhofer

External links

References

Swedish Trade Union Confederation Retail trade unions Trade unions in Sweden 1906 establishments in Sweden Trade unions established in 1906 {{Sweden-org-stub