1 759 We have heard a lot recently about the virtues of the Swedish system of national wage negotiation, notably from Jack Cooper in his Fabian pamphlet "Industrial Relations: Sweden shows the way". In Sweden it was interesting to hear trade union comments on how thesystem works, Quite a number of union leaders are beginning to feel that the important concessions made by the L.Q. (Swedish T.U.C.) to the employers' federation (S.A.F.) are not being justified by the results. The L,O, in the annual negotiations accepts a nationsl “guiding light' wage increase which is then protected by a legal ban on strikes and enforced arbitration by a Labour Court consisting of three Goverment appointed judges, two L.0O. and two 5.A.F. representatives,
Wages have,of course, grown steadily in Sweden in recent years, but not as fast as in some countries and not as fast as they could in Sweden according to some tradé unionists. or example, Valter Anderson, President of Stockholm's largest union (Building Yorkers) said that he had found that despite the wage agreement inflation continued to erode the value of wage increases. Taxes on the ordinary workers’ income are heavy in Sweden. "Moat important of all," Anderson said, “the employers refused to consider effective means of controllirg profits: The whole system would break down if we insisted on this." An official of the Labour Market Research Boarddrew my attention to figures which bear out this picture, According to the August “International Financial Statistics", published by the International Monetary Fund, wages in Syeden grew by 29 per cent between 1958 and 1962: however, during the same riod the cost of Livi: rose by 12 per cent and share prices (the best index of i cent. Between 1953 and 1958 the trend was: very similar,
These facts are especially significant in that, as Jack Cooper recognised, Sweden has possessed exceptionally favourable conilitions for economic progress the country has abundant supplies of good raw materials (timber and high grade iron ore), and it has been neutral in the two world wars, In Britain to-day , after a decade of Conservative rule, we need a massive investment programme to renovate industry and to salvage and extend the social services, ‘The question we will face is who is going to pay for this investment. Is it going to be those who brought us to the present economic crisis or is it going to be the working class which has only been the victim of that crisis?
The Swedish unions have never faced an issue like this, British unions may have something to learn from Swedish experience, but this experience cert= ainly does not suggest that in British conditions unions should negotiate away the right to strike.