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unhinged
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these days conservatives love to bash sweden and other nordic countries because people like me keep pointing out that everything about their countries is better than america. but staughton lynd brought a swedish steel labor organizer to talk about how sweden saved their mills instead of destroying towns and jobs to put profit_over_people .
' SWEDEN PROVIDES ONE ALTERNATIVE
twenty-five years from now, no doubt too late for many, many youngstowns, this is how every civilized nation will modernize its industry. several of us in youngstown had a glimpse of that future when we met at the local 1462 union hall with per ahlstrom, editor of the weekly magazine of the swedish metal workers federation. ahlstrom began by emphasizing that sweden, like the united states, is a capitalist economy. then he went on to describe the swedish still crisis and how it was resolved. several years ago, he said, sweden faced the same problems of overcapacity and low profitability which now exist in the united states. there were three swedish steel companies, two privately owned, and one owned by the government. each was trying to carry on the whole steelmaking process from blast furnace to rolling mill, and all were losing money. accordingly, the swedish government insisted that the three enterprises coordinate their activities. at the same time, however, it was decided as a matter of principle that rather than concentrate all steelmaking in a single location it would be socially preferable to preserve each of the three traditional steel towns if a way could be found to do so. the resolution was that each company remained where it was, but each henceforth was responsible for a single phase of steelmaking. the mill closest to sources of iron ore in northern sweden did the initial processing. the mill located on the seacoast did most of the finishing. meantime, since all modernization and rationalization tends to eliminate jobs, imaginative programs were designed to help people leave the steel industry, not in shock and defeat, but with a sense of moving forward in their lives. all swedish employers were required to list all job openings, and a computerized printout of currently available jobs was posted each day in the mill itself. persons who wanted to visit other communities where there were job openings were paid to do so, as were their spouses. every steel worker was guaranteed two years pay during the period of transition. the social objective, our visitor stated, was that no one ever be compelled unwillingly to leave a job.' - staughton lynd
sounds like a different kinder planet to me
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180930
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