The rolling national stoppages started April 23 and have so far involved 66,000 workers. The strike is already the biggest in the history of the un ion, which is demanding a 5.5 percent increase in wages.

Workers told Militant reporters who visited from Gothenburg in early May that 500 union members had attended the union’s strike meeting in Skene the week before—that is, almost all the workers taking part in the stoppage. Around three-quarters of the participants were women.

The union has exempted some municipal workers, including ambulance drivers, fire fighters, and nurses for the handicapped and the elderly, from the stoppage.

Two cleaners and one cook on picket duty outside Parkskolan (Park School) in the town center spoke about the importance of the wage fight. The present wage rates give the workers absolutely no margins, they said. “The strike is important because you have to be able to live on your wages,” said Agneta Lundqvist.

Mirja Hellström, who works as a cook in the cafeteria, agreed. “You should not have to depend on anyone else,” she said.

Schools like this will not be cleaned for two weeks, the workers explained. With the cafeteria also shut by the strike, students bring their own food and eat in the classrooms.

“We get a lot of support from people who pass by, they honk and give us the thumbs-up. Only one person, yesterday, gave us the thumbs-down,” said cleaner Lilian Abrahamsson.

Seven workers were picketing outside a school named Kunskapshuset, or House of Knowledge. “Our basic wage is 15,300 krona, but many of us only receive 90 or 97 percent of that wage, depending on how many weeks you work in the summer when the school is closed,” said Anne Ahlgren. Her fellow cleaner, Eva-Lena Karlsson, said that because of this system her wage is only 14,800 krona (US$1=7.8 krona).The workers picket in four-hour shifts between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. “The school is open in the evening, when there are courses taught here,” said Ahlgren.  
 
Students show support for strike
Students have expressed support, they said, even though after three days of the strike the school showed signs of the lack of cleaning. “Two students from the course for hotels and restaurants came out and told us that we are striking for them too, for the wages they will get when they graduate,” said cook Maria Axelsson. “A young person who starts to work these jobs will get only 10,600 krona a month for a full time job,” she noted.

Nurses and other MWU members who work at day-care centers are also on strike, although the centers have stayed partially open, since some of the workers belong to another union that is not participating in the strike. Picketing the Sandsvallsäng day-care center, nurse Pia Svensson told the Militant that she usually looks after eight children between the ages of one and eight in her own home.

“All the parents have had to find another way to look after their children these two weeks,” she said. “But they say it is OK, we will figure something out, and they ask grandparents and others to help. They say they really hope we win.”

The municipal employers’ organization has said there is no money to pay for higher wages. “But after the day-care and hospital nurses demonstrated last year, suddenly there was money,” said Svensson.

“The nurses got raises that time, and I really think it is important they did—but we didn’t,” said Ahlgren, who, like Axelsson, had taken part in the demonstrations. So had Erika Guerrero, who works as a nurse with elderly people suffering from senility and is exempted from the strike. “We marched every month when the municipal assembly had their meeting,” she said. Day-care nurses initiated the marches, winning support from nurses and others in demanding a monthly raise of 1,000 krona. “They said then, too, that there was no money, but after a few months, they gave in and granted us 450 krona a month,” she said.

“I wish we had marches like last year, we must be seen. This is far too quiet,” said Guerrero, who earns 13,800 krona a month. The only march during this strike has been the traditional May Day demonstration when 150 municipal workers marched, far more than the usual number.

The nurses at Guerrero’s workplace are not on strike, but because of the strike action, no new person can be hired there. At a recent social, Guerrero said, a patient’s relative had given the nurses a boost by saying in a speech, “We relatives really support your struggle and think you should be paid accordingly for this important work you are doing.”

The employers’ stand against the wage raises fits into two decades of cuts in spending on health care and social welfare in Sweden. In 1981, around 37 percent of the GNP went to the so-called public sector, which includes schools, hospitals, and day-care centers. In the 80s, the figure fell to 31 percent. If further planned cutbacks are implemented the share is expected to fall to 29 percent in 2006.  
 
 
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