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Swedish unions are there to set minimum wages, benefits, pensions, etc… because we have an actual free market & the social cushion for the natural losers of a free market. Unions have to take the role of negotiating with companies because the government doesn’t.

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> unions are there to set minimum wages, benefits, pensions,

I’m not sure how is that different from the UAW in the US? They do all of those things and seem to be as or even considerably more successful than European unions at achieving those things.

The fundamental difference is that in the US the Government dictates minimum wages and working conditions by law, in Sweden it's the unions that do it by agreement.

I’m not sure that’s relevant in this case? The minimum wage for UAW represented workers is over 300% higher than the one set by the federal government. Healthcare, retirement and vacation benefits are also massively better than those required by government.

This was all achieved through an agreement with the union.

Also it’s not like anyone working in non union factories owned by Japanese, European manufacturers or Tesla are earning anything close to the minimum wage anyway.

It's very different. The respective unions see their roles very differently, and fight for completely different things.

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