LO's membership fees are invested in a scholarship for 'trade union feminism'

Every year, 6 million SEK of LO’s membership fees go directly to the Social Democrats. Prior to the 2022 election, LO made a big investment and allocated a total of 50 million SEK for campaigns to ensure the Social Democrats’ victory. Another investment made by LO through membership fees is a scholarship for ‘trade union feminism’ which is currently open for applications.

According to the SCB’s party sympathy survey last summer, the Social Democrats had 36.9% voter support among LO’s members. The Sweden Democrats closely followed with 29.3%. Despite the majority of members voting for parties other than the Social Democrats, the millions continue to flow to the party.

Membership fees not only finance the Social Democrats but also left-wing activist campaigns. LO recently opened the application window for a scholarship of 50,000 SEK for anyone who wants to campaign for ‘trade union feminism 2025’ funded by the membership fees.

“The scholarship is awarded to members and elected representatives in LO’s member associations who want to carry out a specific project or activity aimed at strengthening trade union feminist work in the workplace, in the trade union movement, or in working life in general,” as stated on LO’s website.

#nonnegotiable

According to LO, “we need to understand gender equality from both a class and gender perspective.”

“Trade union feminism argues that equal and equitable conditions fundamentally concern how society’s resources are distributed and how work is organized. Therefore, we need to understand gender equality from both a class and gender perspective. This also applies to those who are affected by, for example, ethnic background, disabilities, or sexual orientation/identity,”

The trade union feminist work funded by membership fees covers several areas:

“Labor market and working life (employment conditions, working hours, work environment).
Family life, care for children and the elderly, household work (parental leave, primary responsibility for household work).
Power, influence, and representation (trade union organization, representation, trade union priorities).
Sexualization, harassment, and violence (sexual harassment).”

Furthermore, LO’s campaign page states that applicants are free to design the type of activity they want. One such example of an activity could be to “spread experience/knowledge within trade union feminism” to others.

The scholarship is announced annually at the end of November after the anniversary of the trade union #nonnegotiable movement.