Swedish Municipal Workers' Union

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**Kommunal**

Swedish Municipal Workers' Union
Svenska Kommunalarbetareförbundet
Founded	1910
Members	570,000
Country	Sweden
Affiliation	LO, ITF, IUF, PSI
Key people	Ylva Thörn, general secretary
Office location	Stockholm, Sweden
Website	www.kommunal.se

The Swedish Municipal Workers' Union is the largest trade union in Sweden with 570 000 members as of 2005, it was created 1910. It is commonly referred to as Kommunal.

The majority of members are employed by varying local level municipalities. Farm workers and co-operatives are also commonly found in this union. Some professions that this union represents are:

Childcare employees
Bus drivers
Ambulance drivers
Firefighters
Elderly care workers

The union leader since 1996 is Ylva Thörn.

As of 2005, 80% of the union's members are female. A third is under 30 years of age. This is attributed to the representation of welfare jobs such as child and elderly care workers.

In recent history, this union has called two major strikes.

From September 28 to October 20, 1995 a strike was called that affected the sports industry workers in Sweden greatly. major league soccer and hockey was not able to start until the issue was resolved.
Another strike was called in 2003, this time mainly affecting childcare workers. The Firefighters got a worse deal after the strike, so there is talk among them to form an independent union.^{[citation needed]}

Kommunal is a member of International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Association (IUF) and Public Services International (PSI).