PEACE IN INDUSTRY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22510, 13 December 1947, Page 2

PEACE IN INDUSTRY

SWEDENS AIMS ABSENCE OF STRIKES NO NATION-WIDE SPLIT STOCKHOLM, Nov. 20. While most countries are torn by conflict between labour and manageiment, in Sweden the labour front is -untroubled by a single serious strike either under way or in prospect. The reason, writes William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard Foreign editor, is that the Swedish labour movement jhas grown lip. It has been organised longer. Both labour and management seem to have a higher concept of resiponsibility to themselves and to the public. There is no nation-wide split in labour ranks, hence no jockying for advantage. There are no jurisdictional strikes and wildcat walkouts, lockouts and sitdowns are negligible. Swedish labour was not always so l peaceful. <n it youth it was turbulent land undisciplined.V But it has learned from experience. As it learned it gained | both in prestige and in numbers until j today manual labour outside the homes I is almost 100 per cent organised. Novel Harmony Labour and management have i achieved in Sweden a measure of collaIboration probably unparalleled anyI where. ~ ' About 15 years ago the Swedish Goviernment realised that both labour and | management had become extremely powerful. It knew that war between them would hurt both and the nation also and felt that the time had come to do something in the public interest. So in 1934 it submitted to Parliament a request far an inquiry concerning measures to be taken on labour legislation. A committee was appointed and its proposals stimulated labour and i management to set up their own coni trols. Both accepted the Prime Minister’s i statement that the Government’s intervention was justified by the fact that important public interests might be jeopardised seriously by battles between labour and management. Saltsjobadens So there took place what are called “Saltsjobaden negotiations”, between jthe Confederation of Trades Unions 'and the Federation of Swedish Employers. (The name comes from the scene of the conference.) The whole range of labour-management problems was discussed including duty to the general public. The result was a lasting agreement. Today this “Saltsjoba;den spirit” has become a household ;word in Sweden. The Confederation of Trades Unions and the Federation of Employers now form a sort of industrial parliament. They exercise equal rights and powers. Their joint committees work out labour and production problems much as parliamentary committees elsewhere tackle legislation. Both sides are equally represented . and this equality is the keystone of j labour-management relations here, j Neither is in a position to bludgeon the other and get away with it. Both on Test In effect, both labour and management are aware they are on their good behaviour. They know the Government is prepared to protect the public interest if they ignore it. So they discuss and settle questions of wages and hours, working conditions, sanitation, job security, pensions, apprenticeships, occupational accidents, safety committees, industrial democracy, production costs, business slumps, sales—everything. So today in Sweden, perhaps as nowhere else, is there mutual realisation that labour and management interests are .inseparable; that there is a point below and above which wages can’t go without destroying the goose that lays golden eggs.