Organising Tech in Sweden

We thought the season was over, but the wins keep coming, so we decided to drop an episode to celebrate another one, this time with the mastermind behind the Klarna and Spotify campaigns: Unionen negotiator Björn Larm!Björn breaks down the five year effort to sign a collective bargaining agreement with Apple Retail, what the workers wanted, and what they missed out by not having the CBA in place when times weren't so good.We close the show off by talking about Unionen's new campaign, Frihet (which means "freedom" in Swedish), which is focused on giving tech workers the information they need to organise, connecting them with other organisers, and giving workers a way to let Unionen know what is important to them.Show notes:Frihet, Unionen's new campaign specifically for tech workers.Unionen's hotline (for Swedish listeners): 0770 870 870Contact Björn directly: [email protected] view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit theepisode page. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, BlueSky, and Mastodon!Produced by Hakuna Matata ProduktionCover art by Anya K. [email protected] music by Ptzery

Our guest this week is none other than Ethan Earle, General Coordinator for Organizing for Power, a training program for organisers that Ethan co-founded in 2019 alongside legendary organiser Jane McAlevey (may she rest in power). O4P has trained more than 40,000 people from 1,800+ organisations in 115 countries over the 5 years of its existance on the core fundamentals of organising and how to win more and win better in the campaigns that matter most.We recap the series and Ethan draws out vital lessons for organisers. We talk about what went wrong in the "shallow organising" campaigns of the 2000s and 2010s and what we've learned from them that has enabled recent victories like the United Auto Workers contract and the bright sparks of the Palestine solidarity movement. Ethan leaves us with a powerful call to action and an invitation to join the upcoming Organizing for Power Core Fundamentals training in February. Gather a group of 10 people, sign up, and let's start winning!Show notes:Jane McAlevey, labour organiser and author of four books.Organizing for Power is an online training programme for organizers worldwide. The next session of the Core Fundamentals course runs weekly from February 13th until March 20th, 2025. The registration deadline is February 2nd, 2025, and you need a group of 10 to join. Sign up here!Follow Organizing for Power on Twitter at @o4p_globalMariame KabaVincent Bevins: "If We Burn"Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto WorkersOur conversation about how tech workers can resist AI will be published to this feed on November 21st.To view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit theepisode page. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, BlueSky, and Mastodon!Produced by Hakuna Matata ProduktionCover art by Anya K. [email protected] music by Ptzery

Hanneli Lindholm from Engineers of Sweden is here to talk about games! We look at the progress that has been made so far, what's going on in the mines of Mojang, how unions can cooperate internationally to ensure that Swedish unions can build on victories won on the other side of the globe, get into the nuts and bolts of how academic unions like Engineers of Sweden and the Swedish Association of Professional Scientists work together with broad-based unions like Unionen in individual workplaces, and of course talk a little about events unfolding in the Spotify campaign. And we have a delightful little surprise for you right at the top of the show!Show notes:For more on the successful campaigns at Bethesda and Blizzard's World of Warcraft team, check out Episode 236 of Tech Won't Save Us: Unionizing the Video Game IndustrySwedish Court of Appeals rejects Spotify's exception to the night work banTo view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit theepisode page. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, BlueSky, and Mastodon!Produced by Hakuna Matata ProduktionCover art by Anya K. [email protected] music by Ptzery

Sen Kanner, former chairperson of the Unionen club at Klarna and Henry Catalini Smith, former chairperson of the Unionen club at Spotify, are back to tell us all about what it takes to run a local union club. We look at what positions there are on the board, what the responsibilities of the chairperson are, how to get people engaged and involved, and how to be a leader without burning yourself out. Building a democratic workplace is hard (in fact, two kinds of hard), but for Sen and Henry, incredibly rewarding as well!Show notes:Article mentioned at 31:15 -All on the Unionen board gone from Klarna – ”cleared”Follow Kim on LinkedIn:linkedin.com/in/kimobergFollow Sen on LinkedIn:linkedin.com/in/kannersenFollow Henry on LinkedIn:linkedin.com/in/henrycatalinismithTo view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit theepisode page. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, BlueSky, and Mastodon!Produced by Hakuna Matata ProduktionCover art by Anya K. [email protected] music by Ptzery

Per Holfve, an advisor with Naturvetarna (the Swedish Association of Professional Scientists), talks about how scientists fit into labour organising in tech, the importance of listening to both workers and employers when building an organising campaign, competing with Netflix for people's valuable free time, and combating gender and racial discrimination in the workplace. We get into how demographic changes in Sweden make it even more vital that unions champion the ideas of inclusion and respect for all people in order to defend against exploitation and racism.Per's overall message is that even though we're facing challenges from a more globalised labour market, we should be confident that if we pull together and keep going and going and going, we will be successful. Hope is a discipline, and we must remain disciplined!To view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit theepisode page. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, BlueSky, and Mastodon!Produced by Hakuna Matata ProduktionCover art by Anya K. [email protected] music by Ptzery

Henry, founder of the Unionen club at Spotify, and Ralf, current vice chair of the club, tell the story of organising efforts at Spotify, educate us on organising strategies, and warn us against taking shortcuts. A CBA hasn't been won yet, but the saga of Spotify is far from over!To view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit theepisode page. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, BlueSky, and Mastodon!Produced by Hakuna Matata ProduktionCover art by Anya K. [email protected] music by Ptzery

We're delighted to welcome former Klarna employee and labour law expert Kim back to the show to explain the Swedish Model (which we're assurred has nothing to do with ABBA). We discuss how it came to be, what makes it different to how labour regulations work in most countries, whether startups need collective bargaining agreements, and what lessons we can take from it and apply to other countries.To view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit theepisode page. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, BlueSky, and Mastodon!Produced by Hakuna Matata ProduktionCover art by Anya K. [email protected] music by Ptzery

We finish our conversation with Sen, Thomas, and Kim about how a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was won at Klarna. In this episode, we cover the impact of immigrant workers on organising, the impact of organising on organisers, and the impact of strikes on negotiations. All of this and a happy ending too!To view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit theepisode page. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, BlueSky, and Mastodon!Produced by Hakuna Matata ProduktionCover art by Anya K. [email protected] music by Ptzery

We kick off Organising Tech in Sweden in style by recounting the story of how a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was won at Klarna, a major Swedish fintech. In fact, Klarna was the first unicorn in Sweden to be unionised (and probably the first unicorn in Europe as well)!To hear all about how this went down, your co-hosts Josh and Ray are joined by Thomas, the founder of the Klarna Unionen Club (a union "local", to use terminology that might be more familiar to US listeners); Sen, the chair of the club who won the bargaining agreement against the odds; and Kim, a former Klarna employee with extensive knowledge of Swedish labour law and market policy.This is part 1 of the conversation, which will be concluded in Episode 2.To view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit theepisode page. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, BlueSky, and Mastodon!Produced by Hakuna Matata ProduktionCover art by Anya K. [email protected] music by Ptzery

Union organising seems to be in the air these days, as tech workers wake up and realise that they are, in fact, workers. Here in Sweden, it's no exception. Join us as we sit down with some of the people involved in organising two of Sweden's foremost tech unicorns, Klarna and Spotify. This is Organising Tech in Sweden.To view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit theepisode page. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, BlueSky, and Mastodon!Produced by Hakuna Matata ProduktionCover art by Anya K. [email protected] music by Ptzery