Last Friday, Caroline Seger and several other Swedish soccer stars went out in an appeal on the players’ association (Swedish soccer players’ interest organization) Instagram account.
– We players have had enough, Seger said among other things.
The mood is infected. If there is no agreement when the women’s league starts on March 24, the players have threatened to go on strike.
On Thursday shall the parties talk to each other for the first time in a year.
In one corner of the ring: EFD (Elite soccer women, the interest organization for the two highest women’s leagues, a total of 28 teams) and their partner the Employers’ Alliance.
In the other: the players’ association.
In November last year, EFD terminated the then existing agreement as the parties did not agree.
– We thought we were on target in December 2021 and the agreement would come into effect from January 1, 2023. We got to April (2022) and then there was still no agreement between the players’ association and the Union on what to do, so the players’ association then made a statement that they will not work through the Union and that they will want to do it (negotiate) themselves, says EFD Secretary General Tomas Hoszek.
From the players’ association do you want to handle the negotiations yourself and not take help from the Unionen union (as was done on the men’s side).
EFD has previously believed – and claimed outwardly – that the players’ association is not allowed to represent the players in the negotiations, which has caused the Employers’ Alliance to refuse to negotiate with the players’ association.
However, the players’ association is approved, which EFD only found out in the past few days.
– But it works (in practice) in the Swedish labor market that you represent a certain group of employees. If you compare it to electricians, for example, there are no more trade unions that represent the electricians, it is with one of the big ones, says Hoszek.
The general secretary of the players association Magnus Erlingmark:
– We have always stated that we have the opportunity to sign agreements, it is in our statutes.
If it were possible, would you rather have negotiated directly with EFD?
– For us, it doesn’t matter. But the girls and the members want us to represent them and that’s why the situation is the way it is.
Yes, I do:
– Those who need to solve this are the players’ association and the Employers’ Alliance together with the Union. EFD will not sign a new collective agreement similar to the one we had before, we will not do that.
Another detail in the conflict is a side agreement to the collective agreement that EFD thought the parties agreed on in December 2021.
– They wanted a side agreement from us that follows the collective agreement and is binding for the collective agreement with a series of points that were a requirement for them to sign the collective agreement at all, says Hoszek.
– Suddenly we were taken hostage in a side agreement that is tied to a collective agreement, then we don’t need to have a collective agreement with the Employers’ Alliance if everything is still connected. It’s not professional, I don’t even understand how they could include those points in such a requirement. They said they don’t sign the collective agreement until the side agreement is signed.
When TT asks the players’ association and Erlingmark about the view of the “hostage statement”, he answers:
– I don’t know what to say other than that it was actually in connection with negotiations that various points were “exhausted” from the agreement. Then you need some kind of side agreement. There are side deals on the men’s side too, that’s nothing strange.
Will you be able to solve this?
– I really hope so, we are open to negotiating at any time, says Erlingmark.
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