Swedish trade union becomes “feminists” and demands that its members live up to these values if they don’t want the risk of being excluded

Published December 31, 2022 | By NewsJive.com

The Swedish trade union, IF Metall (metal workers) ha decided to change its policies and articles of association. The Union defines itself nowdays as a “feminist trade union”, and they demand that all of its member live up these new values, especially those who want to represent the union. Or else there is a risk that they cannot longer be members in the Union.

The Union Secretary at IF Metall, Martin Gunnarsson, explains to Swedish news channel SVT why they have decided to make these changes. “We see that there is a fundamental phenomenon that often makes women in working related environments and in other environments are treated less well, and we want to change that”.

When the news reporter ask Gunnarsson, if he thinks the majority of its members identifies themselves as feminists, he replies, “I can’t answer that question”.

It’s not the first time a Swedish trade union becomes feministic. In 2017 a trade union called Byggnads (construction worker’s union) became officially feminists, and possed with their representatives in an epic group photo on social media, wearing so called pink “p*ssy hats”. A PR-strategy they got heavily mocked for.

One Twitter user wrote back then: “The funniest part was the photo. The man on the bottom to the right was the only one who understood how f*cking stupid this was.” On which the trade union Byggnads replied to him: “Great that we could entertain you! Now we fight together for greater equality and decent workplaces. We never tweet alone!”.

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