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Swedish union membership plummeted in 2007 and 2008. A total of 273,000 members disappeared out of Swedish unions between the start of 2007 and end of 2010. Since 2006 LO has lost 16 percent, or one in six members.

The main cause was the centre-right government announcing an increase in unemployment insurance fees in autumn of 2006, taking effect from January 2007.

At the same time the tax rebates for unemployment fund fees (40 percent) and trade union fees (25 percent) were axed. In Sweden most unemployment benefit funds are traditionally linked to trade unions. 

One and a half years later the government decided to further differentiate unemployment fund fees according to the risk of unemployment in each fund. This meant members of certain unions, for instance IF Metall, faced an unemployment fund fee of 390 kronor a moth when unemployment among members were at its highest, while civil engineers got away with 90 kronor in monthly fees.

Today 71 percent of all employees are union members. At its peak in 1993, union membership stood at 85 percent. A historical shift is that the number of white-collar workers is now higher than that of blue-collar workers. Yet Sweden’s total union membership figure is amongst the highest in the world.

Sources: ”Collective agreements’ reach and trade union and employer organisation  membership” by professor Anders Kjellberg, Lund University, plus ”Why are unions loosing members?”, a presentation at a seminar on 25 October 2011.