(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The construction workers' union in Sweden – Byggnads – has since last autumn blocked a workplace in the Swedish city of Vaxholm because a Latvian company refuses to enter into a collective agreement with the union. This has led the Latvian government to threaten to take Sweden to the European Court of Justice.
The Latvian construction company Laval & Partneri Baltic won a tender to build a school in Vaxholm.
The company claims that it has a collective agreement with its employees in Latvia – and therefore refuses to negotiate with Byggnads to enter into a Swedish collective agreement. The salary of the Latvian construction workers is 13.700 kroner a month plus free board and lodging. The claim from Byggnads is NOK 10.000 higher.
Byggnads has no members at the construction site in Vaxholm, and the association therefore in December encouraged members of the Electricians' Association to go to sympathy actions.
stopped
A Swedish court has granted Byggnad's argument that their blockade is not unlawful. Therefore, the blockade continues. The Latvian workers have not reappeared after the Christmas holidays, and now the client, the municipality, is considering what will happen next. Whether to terminate the agreement with the Latvian company.
Byggnads states that the blockade will continue as long as the Latvians do not cooperate. The blockade is now supported by six other unions in addition to Byggnads.
In addition to the blockade in Vaxholm, a similar conflict is ongoing in the city of Kalix. This conflict is minor and concerns the construction of a private detached house.
The union leader in Byggnads, Hans Tilly, tells Ny Tid that this conflict is about an inalienable requirement that equal conditions shall apply to all construction workers in Sweden.
- We demand that everyone should have the same conditions, regardless of whether one comes from Sweden or another country. Our requirement is that the Latvian company, which has the assignment in Vaxholm, signs a collective agreement with us, says Hans Tilly.
a financial question
The Latvian company, for its part, claims that they have a Latvian agreement that applies to their employees. Building interpretation of EU labor regulations moving internally within the EU is simple. It is the laws and agreements in the country that a worker applies to, and that means that it is the Swedish collective agreement that applies to everyone who works in Sweden.
The Latvian company claims that they pay an hourly wage that is not below any Swedish minimum wage. And there is no discussion about what is in the agreement that the company has with its employees. The problem is that Byggnads demands that they have a higher hourly wage than they receive. And there are many indications that the Latvian company will have more to answer for nor the magazine Byggnadsarbetaren will soon be on the streets with documentation that shows that among those who have worked in Vaxholm there are craftsmen who have been paid the equivalent of less than 4000 Swedish kroner a month – despite Laval & Partneri Baltic claiming that the salary is 13.000.
Growing problem
The information manager at Byggnads, Maria Bäckbom, states that the problems with foreign construction workers who work under poorer pay and working hours than Swedish construction workers have become very common. In addition, many of the foreign workers work in a very poor working environment, where safety is not maintained.
And the stories from everyday life pile up in the premises of Byggnads.
In the summer of 2003, a fatal accident occurred at SSAB in Luleå. A kiln mason from Slovakia died when he fell during the masonry work.
The building department in Luleå entered into an agreement with the company Termostav before the fatal accident occurred. The parties agreed on an hourly wage of 137 kroner for the 130 Slovak kiln masons in Luleå. Everything seemed to be in its most beautiful order. The agreement was signed and not to be misunderstood.
- But then the problems began to appear in earnest. The masons did not get the 137 kroner per hour that they were supposed to. The company made sure that the masons on the trip from Slovakia to Sweden signed a wage agreement which entailed an hourly wage of between 13 and 18 Swedish kroner, says Maria Bäckbom.
In connection with the fatal accident, several of the Slovaks wanted to talk about their situation. One of them took courage and contacted the Swedish trade union. He did this even though he showed that he was exposing himself to great danger. The Slovaks had received a clear message from Termostav that they should not talk to anyone about how long their work sessions were, what their salary was, where they lived and what kind of conditions they worked under.
- They had been clearly told not to contact anyone who did not work in the company. It was strictly forbidden to talk to professional representatives and journalists, says Bäckbom.
The job inside the stoves is dangerous and involves a great risk for those who are going to build these stoves. Among other things, there is a lot of airborne dust from asbestos and hazardous steam. But the Slovak walls did not get any masks or special gloves to work with. They had to look in the rubbish bins to find equipment that the Swedish workers had discarded. Several of the Slovaks went for a long time with open bleeding wounds without getting help or protection against them developing into life-threatening wounds.
Maria Bäckbom states that they have now got Thermostav to admit their trampling. The company has paid back more than NOK 20 million in non-payment of wages to the Slovaks.
- But this type of illegal agreements is part of what is happening in the labor market today. We do not have enough control over the agreements that foreign workers receive when they travel to Sweden to work, says Bäckbom.
The illegality continues
In the last couple of years, Byggnads has carried out a number of surveys to map the presence of foreign labor in Sweden.
Before the Eastern European countries became members of the EU, the number of illegal workers from these countries was quite large in countries such as Sweden. It was claimed that the situation would come under control when the countries became members of the EU.
The survey shows that foreign construction work is grossly exploited in Swedish workplaces, and there has been no significant change since the EU was enlarged. The survey has revealed that the foreign workers receive far too little in hourly wages, they have no insurance and protective equipment is missing.
Byggnads can point to many examples of horror, such as this from Torsby. It was a construction worker from Poland who was given an hourly wage of 60 kroner. The Pole had been at the local tax office and applied to pay taxes as a temporary worker, because he had a permanent address in Poland. The Pole bet that he would pay 25 percent in taxes. But this was not to be quite so. He received only 20 kroner an hour. But it would turn out to be even worse. One month he worked 77 hours, and was paid 200 kroner, or just under 2,60 per hour.
Another example is from Svartliden's mine in Luleå. In the summer of 2004 and into the autumn, some Portuguese workers worked in the mine. They were forced to claim that they received 190 kroner per hour, if anyone asked them. They were also given fake pay slips which they were to deliver to at the union office of Byggnads in Luleå. In addition, they were forced to sign a contract describing what would happen if they leaked information about the real agreement to a third party. They were threatened with being fired and they also had to pay for the journey home themselves.
And it hardly comes as a surprise that the company that employed the Portuguese had not arranged insurance and protective equipment either.
Union leader Hans Tilly in Byggnads, says that as the examples with the Slovaks, Portuguese and other similar cases that Byggnads has obtained, is that the workers are refused to contact local unions or journalists.
- They must not disclose the actual pay slip and the agreement. And everything happens with the threat that they will be fired if they say something. The cases also have in common that insurances and proper work equipment do not exist, says Hans Tilly.
Many work accidents
The Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions recently published the report "Labor for sale – six months with open borders."
This report shows that foreign labor is overrepresented when it comes to fatal accidents in the workplace. The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions states that in 2004 the foreign workforce was behind ten per cent of fatal accidents in the workplace. They make up less than one percent of those who work in Swedish workplaces.
- Our experience is that it is unfortunately true that foreign labor is exploited in Sweden. Junk companies gamble with cheap labor at the expense of safety and working environment. To avoid this, we demand that Swedish rules and laws apply to everyone who works in Sweden, says Maria Bäckbom.
