Kampen mot § 23 Facklig makt vid anställning och avsked i Sverige före 1940

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to use a power perspective to describe the workers’ struggle for co-determination in the Swedish labour market during the period 1890–1939. The study explores how trade unions in general attempted to limit article 23, which asserted employers’ control over hiring and dismissal. At the same time the study clarifies differences in union power between various groups of workers. The prevalent historical view regarding the distribution of power in the labour market is thus questioned.The study shows that workers were not powerless before the Saltsjöbaden agreement in 1938. In certain areas workers, through their unions, already at the beginning of the 20th century had fairly good possibilities of influencing both hiring and dismissal. Collective agreements that were entered into before the defeat of the workers in the great conflict in the Swedish labour market in 1909, as well as collective agreements signed during the 1920s and 1930s, can make both the Saltsjöbaden agreement and present-day regulations look “hostile to workers”. In collective agreements workers achieved considerable limitations of employers’ arbitrary freedom to hire and dismiss workers. Certain unions could control their labour market efficiently by means of a labour exchange of their own. The development, however, varied over time and between different trade unions. Business cycles generally influenced how much power unions could exert. Access to power resources and other conditions varied between different workers’ groups. While some attained considerable power over hiring and dismissal, others had no possibilities of taking part in decision-making.