SCCL’s Research Department for Labour and Discrimination Law, together with the Institute for Social Private Law, held a well-attended seminar, Sympathy Actions – Under Pressure? 22 February 2024. Over 120 participants attended. The theme was based on the protracted conflict between the car company Tesla and the trade union IF Metall. After the union announced industrial action to get Tesla to enter into a collective agreement for its operations in Sweden, the conflict has expanded, and twelve other unions from Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway have taken sympathy actions in support of IF Metall.
Professor Petra Herzfeld Olsson, Stockholm University, opened the seminar with a historical sketch of the right to take sympathy actions. Professor Emeritus Niklas Bruun, Hanken, Helsinki, followed up with a presentation of the legal situation in Finland, after which the question of sympathy measures was debated. During the seminar, the importance of sympathy measures for collective bargaining systems and the risks and opportunities of limiting them were discussed. Speakers were Mattias Dahl, Deputy CEO of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, Erland Olauson, mediator, impartial chairman of the industrial agreement, Professor Birgitta Nyström, Lund University, Professor Emeritus Lars Calmfors, Stockholm University and Research Institute of Industrial Economics, lawyer Erik Danhard, Kanter Law Firm, and Unionen’s Head of Negotiations Martin Wästfeldt. After the seminar, everyone met for mingling in SCCL’s premises.
