| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 379.1 | The cabinet has resigned... | STKSMA::AHLGREN | No commercial potential! | Mon Feb 19 1990 07:58 | 23 |
| The bank strike is over, they got a pay increase of 15% and the
lowest salary was raised from 7.800 SEK to 9.300.
The biggest thing is that for the first time in history a swedish
government has resigned due to losing a votation in the Parliament.
The goverment wanted to implement a 'crisis program', to stop the
high raises of salarys (about 10-20% for most people this year)
and also end the many strikes that been going on lately.
The 'package' included banning of strikes, limitation of pay raises
among other things. This 'package' should be effective for the next
two years.
The Social Democrats was unable to get any of the other parties
to accept the package and when it 'fell' in the votation the Government
resigned.
Right now, the Speaker of the Parliament is trying to get someone
to accept the task of creating a new cabinet. If this fails Sweden
will have a general election by summertime.
Paul.
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| 379.2 | Does the current trouble constitute a 'strike'? | MLTVAX::SAVAGE | Neil @ Spit Brook | Mon Feb 19 1990 09:16 | 38 |
| From: [email protected] (Bj�rn Lisper)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Banks on strike
Date: 16 Feb 90 16:19:44 GMT
Organization: The Royal Inst. of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden.
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Lars-Henrik
Eriksson) writes:
%In article <[email protected]> [email protected] writes:
%> situation in Sweden, but... Well, for those who don't know, the banks are
%> on strike both in Finland and in Sweden.
%The banks in Sweden are NOT ON STRIKE! The bank employers have LOCKED OUT
%their employees. That is quite a different situatiation. What annoys me is
%that Swedish media (and I would guess international media also) are extremely
%sloppy in making this distinction, thus putting the "blame" for the conflict
%on the bank employees trade union, while it is really on the banks themselves.
You're almost right. A few persons in sensitive positions (like
business with foreign countries) are on strike, the rest are locked
out. This is of course the usual pattern when there's a conflict: the
union tries to maximize the loss for the employers with a minimum of
people, and the employers respond with a lockout to make the union's
strike funds disappear faster.
I agree, though, that it should be called a lockout and not a strike
since the lockout is the major action, in terms of personnel. But who's
to blame, on the other hand, is not a matter of who's using the biggest
axe. A conflict is usually not the fault of only one part...
The REAL fault is of course that in Sweden, with an annual production
increase of about 2%, all unions try to overbid the others with salary
increase demands in the 15-20% range. It is not hard to imagine where
this will lead, especially with the present political situation where
the government to be most likely will not be able to make any tough
decisions.
Bj�rn Lisper (Bjoern Lisper)
|
| 379.3 | | TLE::PETERSON | Bob | Tue Feb 20 1990 10:08 | 10 |
| So should I have bought my SEK before the strike/lockout or afterwards? What,
I'm asking, are the effects on the economy? I suppose it's wait-and-see until
a new government is in place. (What does it mean to have a government resign?
Elected officials quit? Just the appointed officials?)
I find it curious the Social Democrats have had such a long history of unbroken
majority and control and that this "little"(?) trouble makes them roll over and
die. I am either misunderstanding something or not hearing the whole story.
\bob
|
| 379.4 | More on bank lockout and government resigning | MLTVAX::SAVAGE | Neil @ Spit Brook | Tue Feb 20 1990 10:17 | 43 |
| [This is a continuation of .2, Bob Peterson's questions in .3 still
await an answer - TT]
From: [email protected] (Patrik F�ltstr�m)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Bank lockout/strike, PM Quitting?
Keywords: Bank Prime Minister
Date: 20 Feb 90 10:05:56 GMT
Organization: Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Chris M. Beery) writes:
>I hear that the bank situation in Sweden is clearing up this week and that
>the Prime Minister (Carlsson I think?) has quit. Are the 2 events related?
>A Swedish friend also told me that the taxes are once again going up (such
>as the gas/petrol prices). Could someone provide a quick overview on the
>situation in Sweden now? Thanks in advance.
Well, they are connected, sort of. Almost all of the swedes this year
demands 10-15% higher salary. It started with some of the cathegories
(the policemen) which made a great fuzz about it. They got 14250 Skr
instead of about 10500 Skr (I may be real wrong at this point, the
salary 10500 is just a guess! Please correct me).
The next group that made a strike and a lot of fuzz was the teachers in
the first to the sixth degree of school. They also got much higher
salary and also got some other more special demands about how long they
must be in school (if they could work at home etc).
After that it has been more or less caotic. As you heard the bank
employeers had a three-week-strike and also the municipals (spelling?)
also adviced a strike on last wednesday.
At that same wednesday the PM had a large tax/strike/salary packet for
vote in the parlament some day after. It contained among other things a
freezing of all salaries, prizes and house-, apartment costs. It also
contained some restriction in the right to strike. He lost and thereby
resigned.
Ok, this presentation was probably wrong in some details such as the
salary for policemen and such things, but I hope someone that really
know can explain in more detail and correct me.
Patrik F�ltstr�m <[email protected]>
|
| 379.5 | More newsgroup participants comment | MLTVAX::SAVAGE | Neil @ Spit Brook | Thu Feb 22 1990 08:55 | 83 |
| From: [email protected] (Erik Karlsson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Bank lockout/strike, PM Quitting?
Keywords: Bank Prime Minister
Date: 21 Feb 90 08:02:42 GMT
Organization: TeleLOGIC AB, Lulea, Sweden
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Chris M. Beery) writes:
>I hear that the bank situation in Sweden is clearing up this week and that
>the Prime Minister (Carlsson I think?) has quit. Are the 2 events related?
>A Swedish friend also told me that the taxes are once again going up (such
>as the gas/petrol prices). Could someone provide a quick overview on the
>situation in Sweden now? Thanks in advance.
That's not easy to do!
Mr. Carlsson and his associates leaving their jobs and the bank
sitiuation clearing up hasn't got anything to do with eachother,
though.
Socialdemokraterna, the largest political party (until now :-) in
Sweden, tried to do something about our taxes, and their suggestion
was:
- Lower the income taxes (on high incomes, primarily)
- Increase the VAT (ie. raise all kinds of VAT:s to the level of
23.<whatever-it-is> percent.
- Add more taxes to the fuel prices
- Lower the fixed taxes on cars ("v{gtrafikskatt")
- Make people pay more of their own interests, ie. the money used
to pay interests should not all be pre-tax money
There were some other parts involved too, but I don't know it all.
In fact, I know very little about it. This "package" combined with
their suggestion that strikes should be forbidden, or as they put it
it "the duty of employers and employees to live in peace with each-
other" (sorry about my English), forced them to quit.
If Mr. Carlsson doesn't suggest a new government today, there will
probably be a re-election (word?), I've heard. I'm not absolutely
sure about this, though.
The main reason for the average Swede to have lost his/her confidence
in Socialdemokraterna is the combination of:
- lower income taxes, on high incomes
- increased VAT
- law against strikes
They seem to have forgotten where they came from. It's supposed to
be a socialist party, but these points indicate that they're not.
----
Erik Karlsson ! TeleLOGIC AB ! f u cn rd ths,
[email protected] ! Aurorum 1 ! u cn gt a gd jb n
tel. +46920 754 22 ! S-951 75 Lulea, Sweden ! cmptr prgrmmng
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [email protected] (Robert Lindh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Banks on strike
Date: 21 Feb 90 18:53:04 GMT
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Shahin Kahn) writes:
>What's happening up there these days??
>Banks (employeRs!) on strike, municipal workers almost on strike,
>government resiging!
>You guys have been in the news lately.
The bank employees are back at work now (the employers and the
employees made a compromise, neither of them got exactly what they
wanted). (The employers were not exactly on strike, they had closed the
doors to the banks for all employees, because some employees were on
strike.)
>Is there any interesting texts that you have read that you can quote to us ?
In our own newspapers here in Sweden, there is a lot of speculation how
the new government will look. One newspaper had about 10 different
suggestions how the political parties could combine into a government.
Standard disclaimer: "Only my personal opinion, of course."
|
| 379.6 | SCANDANIVAN BANK STRIKES!! | ILO::PJCUNNINGHAM | Armenian Renegade | Thu Feb 22 1990 21:59 | 5 |
| I m reading alot and hearing a lot about the Bank strike and
political strife in Sweden, but can any body tell me about the
corresponding Bank strike in Finland, which everybody seems to
have ignored!!??
|
| 379.7 | Separate issues | MLTVAX::SAVAGE | Neil @ Spit Brook | Fri Feb 23 1990 09:05 | 37 |
| From: [email protected] (Lars-Henrik Eriksson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Bank lockout/strike, PM Quitting?
Date: 22 Feb 90 16:05:40 GMT
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Erik Karlsson) writes:
> [Description of the tax reform]
> There were some other parts involved too, but I don't know it all.
> In fact, I know very little about it. This "package" combined with
> their suggestion that strikes should be forbidden, or as they put it
> it "the duty of employers and employees to live in peace with each-
> other" (sorry about my English), forced them to quit.
Actually, there are two quite separate issues.
1) The tax reform. Not universally praised, but generally accepted.
Parts of it had already been accepted by parliament, and for the rest
the goverment had negiotiated a majority.
2) The "crisis package". Since Swedish economy is said to go downhill
rapidly, the goverment put together a crisis package, consisiting
mainly of bans on price increases, wage increases and rent increases,
combined with a ban on strikes. This package was quite unpopular with
everyone else (for different reasons), and eventually forced the prime
minister to resign. The main obstacle was the strike ban which violates
human rights, all other parties were against it.
The polictial crises combined with all banks being closed for three
weeks didn't do the financial market any good. The stock market is
going down and rates are going up fast, mostly for the great
uncertainty of what's actually going to happen.
Lars-Henrik Eriksson Internet: [email protected]
Swedish Institute of Computer Science
Box 1263 Phone (intn'l): +46 8 752 15 09
S-164 28 KISTA, SWEDEN Telefon (nat'l): 08 - 752 15 09
|
| 379.8 | Coverage by US news sources | MLTVAX::SAVAGE | Neil @ Spit Brook | Fri Feb 23 1990 09:07 | 36 |
| From: [email protected] (Shahin Kahn)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Banks on strike
Date: 22 Feb 90 19:29:37 GMT
Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Robert Lindh)
writes:
>Is there any interesting texts that you have read that you can quote to us ?
There was an article in New York Times last friday. It seemed like a
good summary of the situation, though they didn't make the distinction
between the strikers and the locked-outs and the employers,... They did
mention the government resigning and a brief story of how that came
about (after the proposal was voted against), and it also mentioned
that the municipal workers have delayed their strike by a week. About a
week before that, I heard on NPR (National Public Radio, which
sometimes has good news but sometimes gets a little too
sensationalistic, in my opinion) that the municipal workers were about
to go on strike the next day. I have not watched much TV lately so I
don't know what kind of coverage it has got on TV. The public TV news
is usually pretty good.
By the way, while I am on this subject, the Wall Street Journal had a
story about Finland's military spending and covered some
often-flattering stroies about Finnish history. This was about two
weeks ago in a monday edition. The gist of it was that Finland is not
planning to decrease their military spending, as much of Europe is,
because of what may be considered good reasons. But the history-part
was much more interesting.
Of course, the news about the Trump marriage travels faster than
seemingly more important news. I was surprized to hear that it is
already an international news story! O' well.
Shahin.
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