The Local, May 13, 2008 Sweden's nurses announced plans on Tuesday to intensify their ongoing strike in a bid to secure higher wages. The decision to extend the industrial action was taken when the Swedish Association of Healthcare Professionals (Vårdförbundet) met for its annual congress on Tuesday. "The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) has failed to react to our industrial action so far, which is why we are now forced to go further," Vårdförbundet's chaiwoman Anna-Karin Eklund told news agency TT. ... Nurses

Luna Finnsson, IceNews, May 10, 2008 Both Sweden and Denmark were plagued with strikes last week as workers in the health sector demanded better wages, according to reports on the World Socialist website. Public sector health care workers in Denmark are striking for the first time in over a decade. The dispute started on April 16th and has grown to encompass nurses, laboratory technicians, nurses’ aides, physiotherapists and day care workers, all of whom are insisting on a 15 per cent increase in salary over the next three years. ... Scandinavia

The Local, May 5, 2008 As the nursing strike enters its third week, an additional 4,300 healthcare union workers walked off their jobs at noon on Monday. A total of 7,150 members of the Swedish Association of Healthcare Professionals (Vårdförbundet) are now on strike. Alingsås hospital outside of Gothenburg spent the entire weekend moving patients. Approximately 200 nurses, or one third of the Alingsås facility’s entire staff, are among those who joined the strike on Monday. ... Nurses

Care workers reach agreement with employers. Associated Press, May 5, 2008 Stockholm - Nurses in Sweden and Denmark continued their strike Monday to demand higher wages. But an agreement with employers ended the 20-day strike of 35,000 Danish elder care and preschool workers, officials said. Swedish union spokeswoman Anna Nybom Chance said 4,400 more Swedish nurses have joined the 3,400 already on strike to demand higher wages. She said representatives of the union and employers will meet with mediators again on Tuesday to try to reach a settlement. ... Swedish

Jordan Shilton, World Socialist Web Site, May 2, 2008 Strikes have broken out in the health sector in Sweden and Denmark, with wage demands at the centre of both disputes. In Denmark, in what is the first major strike in over a decade, health care workers in the public sector, including nurses, midwives, laboratory technicians, physiotherapists and nursing aides, were joined by day-care workers on strike from April 16. They are demanding a 15 percent pay rise over a three-year period. Employers have offered only a 12.8 percent rise, and threats have grown of counter-measures, including a possible lockout of the members of one of the unions involved in the action. ... Health

Xinhua, April 24, 2008 Stockholm - Sweden's ongoing nurses strike has expanded on Thursday with more nurses throughout the country joining those already in the action demanding higher wages. About 2,500 nurses went on the strike Monday after negotiations broke down between the Swedish Association of Health Professionals and their employers last weekend. A further 900 nurses joined the strike on Thursday and more could go off duty in the beginning of May if a settlement has not been reached with employers, the association said to the local media. ... Swedish

Associated Press, April 24, 2008 Stockholm - The wage dispute between Swedish nurses and their employers intensified on Thursday as 900 health care workers prepared to join the 2,500 already on strike. Union spokesman Tor Enqvist said the additional nurses would join the strike on Thursday and Friday and that 7,000 more could walk out of their jobs on May 7 if a settlement has not been reached with employers. The salary dispute follows similar labor conflicts in the Nordic region, where health care workers have fought to raise the status - and the pay - of their profession. ... Swedish

United Press International, April 24, 2008 Stockholm - Striking nurses and their employers said Thursday that staffing in Swedish healthcare facilities was adequate, even though many nurses had walked off the job. An additional 900 nurses were expected to join the strike, the Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyra reported. Healthcare concerns at an intensive care unit in Ystad and a cancer ward in Helsingborg led the Swedish Association of Health Professions to exempt 35 nurses from participating in the strike, the report said. In Stockholm county, talks were held to ensure that X-ray departments were adequately staffed while the strike continued, Tidningarnas Telegrambyra said. © 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

Reuters, April 21, 2008 Stockholm - Swedish nurses and healthcare workers staged protests across the country at the weekend over wages and prepared to go on strike on Monday after mediated talks with employers stalled. Tor Enqvist, spokesman for the Swedish Association of Healthcare Professionals, said 3,500 of the union's 108,000 members were preparing to walk off the job after negotiations broke down on Saturday. "Nothing has happened today so it looks like it will be a strike tomorrow because they (the sides) had a meeting with mediators yesterday and the mediators don't see a possibility of finding a deal," Enqvist told media on Sunday. ...

United Press International, April 20, 2008 Stockholm - Swedish nurses protested Sunday amid deadlocked contract negotiations, making a nationwide strike likely, officials said. The Swedish Association of Healthcare Professionals said its last attempt to reach an agreement with the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions ended in a deadlock Saturday, the Swedish News Agency TT reported Sunday. "This means that everything indicates that a strike will break out on Monday," spokesperson Claes Bertilson said. ... Report

Peter Vinthagen Simpson, The Local, April 20, 2008 Nurses took to the streets in Stockholm and Gothenburg on Sunday to demonstrate for higher pay. A strike beckons on Monday as mediators called off talks on Saturday. Negotiations between healthcare employers and unions broke off in deadlock on Saturday afternoon. A strike now seems inevitable on Monday as nurses and other healthcare professionals demand higher pay. The Swedish Association of Healthcare Professionals (Vårdförbundet) sat down in a final attempt to secure a deal with the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) on Saturday. According to SALAR's press spokesperson Claes Bertilson, by late afternoon negotiations had broken down in stalemate. ... Nurses

Associated Press, April 19, 2008 Stockholm - Nurses, midwives, radiographers and biomedical scientists are staging protests across Sweden to demand higher pay. The medical workers have threatened to go on strike next week if their demands are not met during a meeting Saturday between union and government representatives. Police say about 2,000 people were protesting in Stockholm. Local media say up to 1,500 demonstrators had gathered in Sweden's second largest city Goteborg, and smaller protests were being held in smaller towns. About 3,500 workers are threatening to go on strike Monday. The Swedish Association of Health Professionals says they are fighting for higher wages that they should be entitled to given their high level of education. © 2008 The International Herald Tribune