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The sixteen affiliates of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation span both the private and the Public Sector . The member unions are fully independent, with the role of the Confederation limited to the co-ordination of wage bargaining, international activities, trade union education and other areas. Another important task is to promote the organisation's views to decision-makers and the general public. It also has representatatives on the governing bodies of many government authorities. The Confederation is also responsible for research and signing labour market insurance schemes. The member unions, however, carries the responsibility for the administration of the unemployment insurance funds. While its Danish sister organisation, the Danish Confederation Of Trade Unions , cut its formal ties to the country's Social Democratic party in 1995 , the Swedish Trade Union Confederation maintains a strong cooperation with the Social Democrats. Although the organisations are independent from each other, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation has a representative on the party’s executive committee elected by the Party Congress. Also, both the Confederation and the member unions contribute substantial amounts of money to the party. Swedish unions have traditionally had a high organisation rate. Between 80 and 85 percent of the employees within the Swedish Trade Union Confederation's area of organisation are union members. (Due to the fact that in some sectors, it used to be mandatory to be in the union, although this practice has been softened up, it still exists particularly in industrial sectors, as there have been incidents of intimidation againts non-members from union functionaries.) Until the 1980's there was a system of collective membership in the Social Democratic Party for members in the confederation, where the local union could request to become members of the Social Democratic Party, effectively making all it's members, members of the Social Democractic Party. (An individual could decline to be part of this collective membership) The Swedish Trade Union Confederation owns 50.1 percent of the evening newspaper '' Aftonbladet '', the largest daily newspaper in Scandinavia ( As Of 2005 ). The organization bought Aftonbladet in 1956 but sold off 49.9 percent to Norwegian media company Schibsted on May 2 , 1996 . The Industrial Union and the Metalworkers' Union, today two separate organisations, has decided to merge into a single union. The merger, effective on January 1 , 2006 , will reduce the number of affiliates in the confederation to fifteen. AFFILIATES # Building Maintenance Workers' Union (''Fastighetsanställdas Förbund'') # Building Workers' Union (''Svenska Byggnadsarbetareförbundet'' or "Byggnads") # Commercial Employees' Union (''Handelsanställdas Förbund'' or "Handels") # Electricians' Union (''Svenska Elektrikerförbundet'' or "SEF") # Food Workers' Union (''Svenska Livsmedelsarbetareförbundet'') # Forest And Wood Workers' Union (''Skogs- och Träfacket'') # Hotel And Restaurant Workers' Union (''Hotell och Restaurang Facket'' or "HRF") # Graphic Workers' Union (''Grafiska Fackförbundet - Mediafacket'') #
# Municipal Workers' Union (''Svenska Kommunalarbetareförbundet'' or "Kommunal") # Musicians' Union (''Svenska Musikerförbundet'' or "SMF") # Painters' Union (''Svenska Målareförbundet'') # Paper Workers' Union (''Svenska Pappersindustriarbetareförbundet'' or "Pappers") # Transport Workers' Union (''Svenska Transportarbetareförbundet'' or "Transport") # Union For Service And Communications Employees (''Facket för Service och Kommunikation'' or "SEKO") SEE ALSO
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