Unionen has previously withdrawn from negotiations over a collective agreement for Unionen members at Klarna. Now, Unionen and Sveriges Ingenjörer (Sweden's Engineers) have issued a strike notice against Klarna Bank AB.
Publicerad 26 okt. 2023
"We seek influence, secure conditions and the possibility of outplacement service. We've waited long enough. Unionen members at Klarna want to establish a collective agreement," said Sen Kanner, chairman of Unionen's Klarna club.
The effort to secure a collective agreement at Klarna has been ongoing for several years. In 2020, members formed a club at Klarna with the aim of establishing a collective agreement.
"For Unionen, it is self-evident that companies operating in Sweden have collective agreements, and negotiations on agreements for Klarna members have been ongoing since March.
Klarna has repeatedly cancelled and postponed previously scheduled negotiation sessions throughout this process. They have also failed to fulfill agreed commitments. Unfortunately, we see no other option but to issue a strike notice," said Martin Wästfelt, Unionen's chief negotiator.
Unionen's view is that Klarna is concerned about the employee influence that a collective agreement entails.
"We are not willing to condition the signing of a collective agreement on reduced employee influence. However, there is both the opportunity and a willingness on Unionen's part to adapt local cooperation to the company's model, but first, we want to have a collective agreement in place," said Martin Wästfelt.
If no agreement is reached, the strike notice will take effect on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, at 10:30 am.
"Our hope is that we can reach an agreement before a conflict erupts. Our door is open for us to reach a collective agreement," said Martin Wästfelt.
Nästa artikel
On Monday, Unionen chose to terminate the negotiations with Klarna on a collective agreement, as reported by the worklife newspaper Kollega - after eight months of negotiations.
The news was soon picked up by several major newsrooms, like Breakit, Dagens Industri, Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet and TT.
"We have reached a point where there are no more issues to discuss, and we had to step away from the negotiations. Our demand for a collective agreement remains, but there's nothing more to talk about. It takes two parties to have something to negotiate about," says Martin Wästfelt, Union's Chief Negotiator, to Kollega.
The major stumbling block has been the issue of employees' influence in the workplace, concludes Kollega.
"Klarna's stance is that - for reasons inexplicable to us - they believe that a collective agreement hampers employee influence, while our perspective of course is the exact opposite”, says Martin Wästfelt, who then summarizes eight months of negotiations:
"It hasn't been a complete standstill; we've had discussions on substantive matters like pension issues, for instance. However, there has been a desire from Klarna's side to prolong the process."
What happens now, will this lead to conflict?
"That is our last resort and an important tool. But we won't reveal our next steps right now. Our goal is not to engage in a conflict, but it's a necessary means – if required."
Read the whole text in Kollega (in Swedish) here.
