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STRIKES

Swedish healthcare union vows ‘we won’t give up’ as strike escalates

Another 1,300 union members joined a healthcare strike in Sweden at 11am on Tuesday.

Published: 11 June 2024 09:29 CEST
Swedish healthcare union vows 'we won't give up' as strike escalates
Nurse Olga Nilsson protesting outside Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

The industrial action, organised by the Swedish Association of Health Professionals (which represents nurses, midwives, biomedical scientists and radiographers), has been ongoing since April 25th, when a ban on overtime and new hires was rolled out across the country as the union demanded shorter working hours.

It expanded to a full-blown strike on June 4th, with around 2,000 members walking out in Stockholm, Västra Götaland, Skåne, Östergötland and Västerbotten, although some of the strike action has been lifted or partially lifted since then to ensure lives are not in danger.

The new strike was previously set to almost double this number, adding a further 1,900 members to the strike in two regions: Värmland and Västmanland. This figure has now dropped to 1,300, as local negotiations in Västmanland mean that members in that region will no longer be striking.

Members in Region Värmland are still planning on striking.

Mediators have been called in to try to get the parties to reach an agreement.

According to the union, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKR) is primarily unwilling to accept its demands for shorter working hours.

“Unfortunately, SKR employers don’t want to negotiate shorter working hours with us. But we’re not going to give up,” Ribiero said.

SKR on the other hand claims that the union has rejected all of its proposals.

“We need every healthcare worker, and a large-scale cut to working hours will affect patients and the working environment,” deputy chair of SKR’s negotiation delegation Sten Nordin said.

SKR is blaming the strike on the union, accusing it of risking the lives of patients. The union refutes this, saying that healthcare was already endangered before it threatened to strike.

The last time Sweden had a nurses’ strike was in 2008.

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HEALTH

Six things we just learned about the sex lives of Swedes

Women have more sex than men and are generally happier with their sex lives, a new survey suggests.

Published: 18 September 2024 14:45 CEST
Six things we just learned about the sex lives of Swedes

In collaboration with pollsters Verian, the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU) quizzed just over 1,000 people in Sweden on how they feel about their sex lives.

It found that Swedes are generally happy with their sex lives, but are having less sex with partners than they used to. But that doesn’t have to be a negative, said RFSU.

“It could be because of several things. It could be that our lives are more stressful, but also that we prioritise other things these days. A third factor could be that we’ve got better at listening and allow each other to say no to sex when we don’t feel like it,” said RFSU expert Pelle Ullholm in a statement presenting the new study.

Few Swedes have sex more than once a week

Almost one third (32 percent) said they had had sex with a partner between one and five times in the past month. However, only nine percent said they had had sex between six and ten times, and six percent said they had had sex more than ten times.

Women have more sex than men – but men masturbate more

Exactly one in five (20 percent) women said they had not had any sex with a sexual partner in the past month, compared to 28 percent of male respondents.

When it comes to masturbation, 27 percent of men and 33 percent of women said they had masturbated between one and five times in the past month. But 18 percent of men said they had masturbated more than ten times, compared to only 2 percent of women.

Only 6 percent of men said they had not masturbated at all, compared to 25 percent of women.

Why do Swedes have sex?

Asked what need sex fulfils in their life right now, most people (58 percent) answered “intimacy”, followed by “it’s fun/hot” (45 percent), and “strengthening my relationship” (43 percent). Four percent said they’re having sex in order to have a baby.

Thirteen percent said sex doesn’t fulfil a need for them right now, or does so very little. This share was much higher among women (17 percent) than men (9 percent).

Swedes are happy with their sex lives

The majority of Swedes are happy with their sex lives, the study found, which suggests that the quality of the sex matters more than the quantity.

Women are happier than men: 54 percent of women said they were very or somewhat satisfied with their sex lives, compared to 48 percent of men.

And conversely, 28 percent of men said they were very or somewhat dissatisfied, compared to 18 percent of women.

The conversation around consent is changing

In 2018, Sweden introduced a so-called “consent law”, which changed the legal definition of rape. Under the new law, both participants need to have actively signalled consent either verbally or otherwise. That and the #MeToo movement have both been credited with changing how Swedes talk about sexual relations and consent.

Fourteen percent of women said their partner or partners had improved their communciation around sex as a result of the public discourse, compared to 8 percent of men. And 8 percent in total said it had made them act differently.

The majority (59 percent) said their communication was already good.

Sex is maybe not taboo, but still private

Despite the report by RFSU, and open Swedish attitudes towards sex in general, it appears people are still reluctant to talk about their own sex lives. Around one in five declined to answer the questions about how often they masturbated or had sex.

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