The Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions and its board met for an extra council meeting on Thursday evening and voted in favor of seeking a new negotiation with the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.

What you want to negotiate about are the terms of the adjustment support, which is part of the main agreement.

When Kommunal and IF Metall left the LO ranks last autumn and agreed with the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise and the white-collar cartel PTK on a new agreement, they had to give a little and take a little.

On the one hand, the members of the unions were given better conditions for switching between jobs and greater opportunities for financing retraining.

On the other hand, employers got relief in employment protection, which means that they can to a greater extent choose who is to be laid off in the event of reductions.

Believe in negotiation

LO's chairman Susanna Gideonsson sees it as possible to get the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise to negotiate only the first part of the above-mentioned agreement.

- We see that in such major crucial issues, the large parties usually end up behind them, so based on that, I also believe that the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise welcomes our negotiation proposal, she says.

What would attract the employers' organization to the table is too early to say, according to Gideonsson.

She also does not want to speculate on whether an agreement such as the one the two unions entered into, with advantages and disadvantages, could be acceptable.

LO's input is that it is only the adjustment support that should be discussed, the chairman states.

Given the situation - that two unions stepped out of line and that you now come to the conclusion that you want to negotiate this - what does your negotiating position look like?

- It is the case that we have an agreement with the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise regarding conversion. And based on both the new agreement signed with PTK that IF Metall and Kommunal joined, we have to negotiate that agreement. And of course, since the new main agreement means improvements in the adjustment support for the members covered by it, our goal is to try to get a better adjustment insurance for all who are members of the LO union, says Gideonsson.