Facket och de papperslösa arbetarna

In the beginning of 2002 a new kind of debate started inside the Swedish trade unions that also were published in the newspapers. The debate was about if the Swedish trade union should organize the undocumented workforce or not. In this thesis I will deal with this issue and also investigate what kind of solutions the trade unions in Sweden use on this new phenomenon, a phenomenon that recently have become a social and political problem during the last years. This is a new subject within political science and there is limited research made before. Because of that, this thesis will be empirical, inductive and exploring by its nature. The main question in this essay is “How do the Swedish trade unions think about organizing the undocumented workers and what do they believe that the union can do to make the undocumented workers circumstances easier?” In order to answer that I had to used four additional questions; which are the main trade unions in Sweden and which of them are in contact with the undocumented workers? Who are undocumented and what does it mean? Which are the trade unions standpoints and arguments in the organization question? What do the Trade unions believe that they can do to make the situation easier for them who are undocumented? Briefly are my conclusions that the trade unions in Sweden are divided about if they should organize or not. Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation is the only trade union that organizes the undocumented workers today but Fastighetsanställdas Förbund express that they want to do it too. In the latest month, a new cooperation have started between undocumented workers and the trade unions LO, TCO, Fastighetsanstaälldas, Hotell och Restaurang and SEKO. Perhaps this cooperation will make the situation at work and life a little bit easier for the undocumented