SECTORAL UNION
| SWEDEN |
| CENTRAL ARBETSTAGARORGANISATION SECTORAL UNION |
Within the meaning of the 1976 Co-Determination Act, this term is synonymous with sectoral/industry-wide organizations of employees. They organize employees within particular industries or occupations throughout the entire country. At present (2000) there are some 65 such unions in Sweden, 60 or so of which belong to one of the three major federations: in most industries the employees are divided between a LO-affiliated union (mainly for manual workers), a TCO-affiliated union (for white-collar workers) and a SACO-affiliated union (for professionals). Both the number and the historical organizational logic of sectoral unions have declined steadily as a result of mergers between unions belonging to the same federation, especially within LO. Mergers between unions belonging to different federations have occurred in only a few cases. LO member unions in particular are structured according to the principle of industry-based unionism, whereas within SACO occupation-based unionism is predominant. The sectoral unions are parties to sectoral agreements and sectoral bargaining. See also collective organization, enterprise-level union organization/“club”, local union.)
Please note: the European industrial relations glossaries were compiled between 1991 and 2003 and are not updated. For current material see the European industrial relations dictionary.