Wild blueberries are much sought after by the health-food industry: four-fifths of Sweden’s delicious blueberries are exported. However, the confederation of Swedish trade unions (LO) has called berry picking “modern slavery”. LO complains that Sweden has “lost control over workplace conditions as global labour has become a cheap commodity”. When berries are scarce, pickers often cannot cover the costs of plane tickets, food and lodging. Polarica, a big company for frozen berries, has suggested “fair trade” certification, so that consumers can choose berries picked only by workers who have been treated and paid well.
English: http://www.economist.com/node/21559956
This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. All rights reserved. The ETUI is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter, please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2012. To unsubscribe, please contact Mariya Nikolova.