The Swedish Municipal Workers' Union A Study in the New Political Unionism

Previous examples of political unionism have focused on issues of public and private economic management and the distribution of income between capital and labour. This article examines a union that has adopted a more fundamental political mission in not only defending the welfare state against economic liberal subversion, but also in tackling the inequities of gender in work life that have so far survived comfortably with the orthodox reformist approach to pursuing gender equality in the labour market and society at large. In an integrated strategy to meet these problems, inspired by the country's resurgent women's movement, the Swedish Municipal Workers' Union-it is argued here-has imbued unionism with a new moral depth that goes to the core of current citizenship issues in Western society, and by so doing it has taken the political lead in the Swedish union movement, not least around institutionalized strategies for work life reform.