member_of_political_party herman lindqvist 
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries , working conditions , benefits , and other aspects of workers ' compensation and rights . The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade ___MASK39___ to which the employees belong . The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales , working hours , training , health and safety , overtime , grievance mechanisms , and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs . Herman Lindqvist ( born 1863 , Arboga , d . 1932 ) was a Swedish Social Democratic politician and trade ___MASK39___ organizer . By profession he was a furniture carpenter , and belonged to the Wood Workers ___MASK39___ . He was the chairman of the Swedish Trade ___MASK39___ Confederation 1900 - 1920 . The Swedish Trade ___MASK39___ Confederation ( literally " National Organisation in Sweden "), commonly referred to as LO , is a national trade ___MASK39___ centre , an umbrella organisation for fourteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly " blue - collar " workers . The Confederation , which gathers in total about 1 , 5 million employees out of Sweden ' s 9 , 6 million people population , was founded in 1898 by blue - collar unions on the initiative of the 1897 Scandinavian Labour Congress and the ___MASK84___ , which almost exclusively was made up by trade unions . In 2012 ___MASK39___ density of Swedish blue - collar workers was 67 %, a decline by ten percentage points in six years ( ___MASK39___ density in 2006 : 77 %). A strongly contributing factor was the considerably raised fees to ___MASK39___ unemployment funds in January 2007 made by the new centre - right government . Arboga is a locality and the seat of Arboga Municipality in Västmanland County , Sweden with 10 , 330 inhabitants in 2010 . A trade ___MASK39___ ( British EnglishAustralian EnglishNew Zealand EnglishSouth African English / Caribbean English ; also trades ___MASK39___ ), labour ___MASK39___ ( Canadian English ), or labor ___MASK39___ ( American English ) is an organization of workers who have come together to achieve common goals such as protecting the integrity of its trade , improving safety standards , achieving higher pay and benefits such as health care and retirement , increasing the number of employees an employer assigns to complete the work , and better working conditions . The trade ___MASK39___ , through its leadership , bargains with the employer on behalf of ___MASK39___ members ( rank and file members ) and negotiates labour contracts ( collective bargaining ) with employers . The most common purpose of these associations or unions is " maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment ". This may include the negotiation of wages , work rules , complaint procedures , rules governing hiring , firing and promotion of workers , benefits , workplace safety and policies . Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden ( Swedish : ), is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe . It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east , and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge - tunnel across the Öresund . At , Sweden is the third - largest country in the European ___MASK39___ by area , with a total population of 10 . 0 million . Sweden consequently has a low population density of , with the highest concentration in the southern half of the country . Approximately 85 % of the population lives in urban areas . The ___MASK84___ , ( SAP ; literally , " Social Democratic Workers ' Party of Sweden "), contesting elections as the " Arbetarepartiet  Socialdemokraterna " (' The Workers ' Party  The Social Democrats '), usually referred to just as the ' Social Democrats ' (" Socialdemokraterna "); is the oldest and largest political party in Sweden . The current party leader since 2012 is Stefan Löfven ; he has also been Prime Minister of Sweden since 2014 .