Globalization, Swedish Trade Unions and European Integration

Abstract

The article argues that the Swedish trade unions were not instrumental in bringing about the Swedish Social Democratic Party's (SAP) decision to apply to the EC for membership on 26 October 1990, despite frequently made claims to the contrary. The trade unions were in fact rather surprised about the SAP turn-around. There had been a change in the position on EC membership within the labour movement after the SAP announcement, but it was anything but unanimous. On the one hand the trade unions of the industrial sector with transnational production structures were in favour, arguing that this was the only way to regain control over transnational capital and international financial markets lost at the national level. On the other hand the unions of the public sector opposed membership, maintaining that accession to the EC undermined the Swedish model with its policies of full employment and generous welfare provisions. The retaining of as many national policy tools as possible would offer a better chance of preserving the Swedish model in times of globalization. Neo-Gramscianism is adopted as the theoretical lens for this analysis, since this allows for account to be taken of the structural changes of globalization within which the debate was placed.