[lutorm]

Um... A quick Google reveals:

Union membership as percent of workforce in: Sweden: 78.0% (2003) United States: 12.0% (2006)

I don't think you have proper appreciation of the historical power of the unions in Swedish politics. In comparison, the U.S. unions are a fringe.

[eru]

I was not talking about the membership numbers. The Economist recently ran some quotes contrasting a Swedish union boss with nominally centre-right Sarkozy.

Anyway, just retract my claim about Sweden. I don't know nearly enough about it.

But I know that in Germany unions are in general quite business friendly, and not nearly as inflexible and insisting on entitlement as, say, the UAW was portrayed in what I read.