Sweden: SAC representative beaten and threatened with murder - forced to withdraw claim

Thought I'd put this up, as despite the fluent English not much news seems to come out of Sweden. Also putting this up as there's a level of sick irony when the media in Sweden accuse SAC of mafia tactics.

PRESS RELEASE: Trade union representative beaten and threatened with murder - forced to withdraw their demands

Monday, July 2 beaten and received death threats a union representative from the Västerorts LS of SAC in his home by people linked to the criminal gang Werewolf Legion. With a knife to his throat, he was forced to withdraw all union claims against an agency.

- This is an attack on the entire trade union movement. We demand that the government and the police take this development seriously, says Anders Knutsson, Information Coordinator for the SAC-Syndicalists.

Monday, July 2 beaten and received death threats a union representative from the West Local LS of SAC in his home by people linked to the criminal gang Werewolf Legion. The background to the beating and the threat is a labor dispute between members of the union and an agency operating in the hospitality industry. The union had called the company to negotiate, on two invalid layoffs and wage requirements, and owed holiday pay.

Negotiations had begun with a first meeting. When the negotiations were to continue the company wanted it to happen on the company premises.

But a new round of negotiations never happened. Instead, six people forced themselves into the union representative's apartment at 21 on Monday evening, July 2. The attackers were led by a former top member of the criminal gang Werewolf Legion who is also the brother of the owners of the agency.

The assailants struck the trade union representative repeatedly against the head and demanded that the union withdraw the requests made ​​against the agency. With a knife against his throat the union representative was forced to call the owner of the agency and promise that all the demands would be dropped. After the phone call the former Werewolf Legion leader said to the union representative that he was personally considered in debt of half a million kronor to the Werewolf Legion leader, to be paid within one month otherwise the union representative would be killed. In the apartment were also the union representatives wife and children who were kept locked up in another room during the assault.

SAC has for a long time followed with concern the development among agencies. Few follow collective agreements.

Labor market regulations on employment contracts, work conditions and vacation pay are followed even more rarely. Wages are often paid out black with great irregularity. Many agencies have owners, or connections to people, with a long criminal history and it is far from uncommon for the companies to be used to launder money for criminal gangs. It was only a matter of time until they would start beating and giving death threats to trade unionists.

SAC demands that the police and Minister for Labour Hillevi Engstrom takes this development seriously and immediately establishes a program to get the agencies to follow the rules of labor and Swedish legislation.

http://www.sac.se/Aktuellt/Nyheter/PRESSMEDDELANDE-Fackföreningsrepresentant-misshandlad-och-mordhotad-–-tvingades-dra-tillbaka-sina-krav

This a quickly cleaned up google translation. bemanningsföretag is like a temp agency or employment/staffing agency but I left the translation as agency. Also "Med kniven mot strupen" is an expression in Swedish as far as I understand, but it's literal here.