History of Swedish trade unions

Workers’ movements in Sweden began as early as the 1850s, when some of the country’s first organized strikes took place. Soon after, unions were formed around specific trade groups, and a powerful national labor movement was born.

In the late 1800s, unions began forming first around specific occupations. As these groups grew in size and number, they began to organize into modern trade unions based on industrial sectors. In 1898, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) was established as the central national organization for most of Sweden’s blue-collar trade unions.

The early trade unions played a decisive role in securing some of the rights that workers still enjoy today. Among these are universal voting rights, pension benefits and the prohibition of child labor. In these respects, and in many others, labor unions helped to lay the foundation of the modern Swedish welfare state.

Today, around 70 percent of all Swedish workers belong to a trade union, making Sweden one of the most unionized countries in the world. And although they are separate organizations, the LO and the Swedish Social Democratic Party continue to maintain strong ties. The LO has a representative on the party’s executive committee. Proposed legislative measures that affect not only the labor market, but Swedish society as a whole, are often passed by the trade union confederations, LO, TCO and Saco for review and input. This gives trade unions a level of political influence that is unmatched in many countries.