We must find sustainable solutions for equal pay!

“We have managed real wage increases for trade union members for several years and taken important steps towards more equal wages. Women’s earnings as a percentage of men’s average wages have increased by three percentage points, from 85 to 88 per cent. But it is not enough to say yes to equal pay if we are unable to find sustainable solutions for achieving it. Now it's up to us all."

This was what LO President Wanja Lundby-Wedin said when opening the LO Congress on Friday. She continued:

“I believe that the fundamental reason that we did not achieve coordination in this year’s wage bargaining is not just a difference of a couple of twenty-krona notes in the gender equality initiative. Basically it is about not having a shared analysis of the problem. And this is where the challenge lies.”

Ms Lundby-Wedin also stated that the picture of LO Sweden as an organisation whose members are leaving is not true:

“Our affiliates have recruited 430,000 new members since the last Congress. But that is not enough. We are in the midst of a generation shift, in which the older, well-organised workers with secure employment are leaving the labour market. We must join together to get more young people to organise and become active in the trade unions. We must become stronger. So that we continue to be the world’s strongest trade union movement!”