Response to interpellation 2025/26:189 on unemployment within the steel industry
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns unemployment and layoffs within the Swedish steel industry, particularly in Hedemora. L argues that the government has taken measures to strengthen purchasing power, promote growth, and improve matching in the labor market through education and reinforced efforts from Arbetsförmedlingen 1. L emphasizes that the industry is the heart of prosperity and that they want to break the recession through tax cuts and support for companies 2 3 4. S argues that the government is passive in the face of the industrial crisis and price dumping from China 5. S demands that the minister meet with Hedemora municipality and the unions to discuss concrete solutions for professional steelworkers 6 5 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Arbetsmarknadsministern Johan Britz (L)
Madam Speaker! Lars Isacsson has asked me what messages I have for Hedemora municipality regarding meeting the municipality and the trade unions to discuss responsibility and measures in connection with the warnings within the steel industry. Furthermore, he has asked what measures and resource reinforcements I and the government have taken to meet the unemployment that we now see spreading, among other things, within the steel industry.
I would like to thank the interpellor for the questions. Regarding the notification to Hedemora municipality, I intend to get back to the municipality with an answer.
The government has taken a number of measures to reduce unemployment by supporting the economy's recovery. We prioritize reforms within three areas above all else. It is about continuing to strengthen households' purchasing power, about reforms for increased growth, and about re-establishing the work line so that more people get into work.
Many unemployed people are far from the labor market. Labor market policy needs to become more effective with cost-effective measures adapted to the different circumstances and needs of the unemployed. The Government has tasked Arbetsförmedlingen with using its own staff to strengthen the support for the long-term unemployed and to improve the matching and monitoring of the unemployed.
The most important individual contribution to establishing oneself long-term in the labor market is education. The Government has therefore made major investments in, among other things, regional vocational adult education and universities of applied sciences.
Lars Isacsson (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister for Employment, for the answer!
This interpellation was raised because we are now seeing a very serious development within the Swedish steel industry. It is very clear in Hedemora municipality. Erasteels' notice in Långshyttan and the closure of operations in Vikmanshyttan, where 500 years of iron and steel production now cease, occurs in a municipality that has already been hit hard by the reductions at Setra and Valmet. It is therefore not a single notice but a chain of events that places an entire municipality in a vulnerable position.
Hedemora has also, as the Minister knows, written to the department with proposals for concrete solutions but has not yet received any answer.
At the same time, the Swedish steel industry is being pressured by a rapidly deteriorating global situation with price dumping of low-quality steel from China, a sluggish automotive industry, and a European market where serious producers are struggling for survival.
I would like to thank the Minister for the answer, but I must say that it leaves a fair amount to be desired. When Vikmanshyttan, Långshyttan, Guldsmedshyttan, Frövi, Degerfors and other industrial towns face warnings again, I had expected something more than general arguments about long-term unemployment and purchasing power.
Here we are not talking about people who are far away from the labor market. We are talking about professional workers with specialized expertise, who are in the middle of their careers and who have families and mortgages. These are workers who today are being told that the government intends to return to Hedemora municipality.
In his response, the minister also does not mention the price dumping of Chinese steel that is destroying the market and which the EU is about to take action against. We are facing a structural industrial crisis but receive a response that could have been taken from a general debate on long-term unemployment.
Hedemora's municipal board chairman David Aura expressed it this way in Södra Dalarnes Tidning: It is not Hedemora that should bear the cost of a global crisis that the state does not want to take on.
So it is not just about local warnings. It is a systemic error, which requires systemic solutions.
Madam Speaker! I want to ask the Minister once again when he intends to actually meet with Hedemora municipality and the local unions. They deserve a clear statement, not an answer that says: We will get back to you. And how does the government intend to meet an industrial crisis that risks erasing steel production that has sustained Sweden for centuries?
Arbetsmarknadsministern Johan Britz (L)
Madam Speaker! Thank you again, Lars Isacsson, for the interpellation and also for the follow-up post!
I will, as I have said, return to Hedemora municipality. I believe that is the best way to proceed.
But I still want to point out that the question of what the global steel market looks like is not primarily a responsibility that I bear in the government. To get a higher-quality answer, that question should probably be asked of either the Minister for Enterprise or possibly the Minister for Foreign Trade.
I do, however, understand the frustration that the member expresses. I also understand that 20 and 30 dismissed [workers] sound like low numbers, but it is a significant portion in Swedish industrial towns.
What we can do in Sweden right now is what the government is doing to try to break the recession. It is unclear to me how it affects the market for high-quality steel or steel in general. But what we are trying to do is to break the recession that exists, so that more jobs will be created.
We currently have a cyclical unemployment, which affects many and which becomes tough for many who lose their jobs. We are trying to break it by strengthening household finances. We do that by lowering the tax on food, so that it becomes cheaper to shop for food, and various other things. It also becomes a bit more profitable and easier to run businesses.
That is what we can do, in addition to the measures I accounted for in my previous contribution. We ensure that we have safety nets that function as bridges between jobs but which do not mean that people get stuck in long-term passivity and long-term unemployment. In addition to that, there are also all the educational initiatives that we are undertaking.
Lars Isacsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer. I am aware that the Minister for Employment is the Minister for Employment, but these questions are connected. I will also pose questions to other ministers regarding this. The frustration that exists in the industrial towns is something the Minister for Employment might understand. One also views the government as a unit.
I think there is a passivity from the minister, the government, and SD regarding unemployment and especially regarding Swedish industry. This evokes memories from Hedemora and Avesta in the years 2011–2012. I was myself chairman of the municipal executive board in Avesta then. We lost 1,000 jobs in Avesta and Hedemora in one year within the basic industry. The chairman of the municipal executive board in Hedemora was named Ulf Hansson. We tried to get the then conservative labor market minister to come. That was not wanted. One only wanted to come to southern Dalarna if one could meet companies that hired young people, but we had no such companies. We had a prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, who was in Davos and spoke about Swedish industry. He said: We have had Swedish industry in Sweden, but now it is "basically gone".
It was the companies, the local business community, and the municipalities that had to bear this themselves. When no one spoke about the conditions for Swedish industry and Swedish manual and office workers, we had to do it ourselves. It was the municipalities, IF Metall, and Pappers who had to carry that banner. We started something called Avestasamtal on the future of Swedish basic industry in 2013. We have had a national conference every year since 2013. When there has been a Social Democratic government, there have been ministers present every year. But not a single time when there has been a bourgeois government has any minister had the time or the desire, despite many invitations.
The same thing is being heard now, and that is probably what causes the frustration. When 500 years of iron and steel production in Vikmanshyttan goes under, people expect someone from the government to take clear responsibility. Now, the labor market minister has been contacted. Then, one wants to see a clear taking of responsibility and not a passive "we will get back to you."
Today's crisis has a dimension that is even clearer now than in 2011 and 2012: the global price dumping from China. It makes the issue a European industrial matter of destiny. There, Sweden must have a clear line. We have an MEP from Dalarna, the Social Democrat Sofie Eriksson, who says that if the EU does not defend its steel industry now, in ten years we will be standing and stating that the jobs disappeared while the politics looked the other way. It is not about protectionism but about maintaining fair play in a global market.
I grew up in a mill town. My father worked at the ironworks. I have always heard that China is the great threat, and we see that now. My wish is that you in the government show that you take this seriously. I appeal to the Minister for Employment: Go and meet them! They have concrete proposals from both the municipality and the unions. And do it now!
Arbetsmarknadsministern Johan Britz (L)
Madam Speaker! I thank Lars Isacsson again for the interpellation and for the picture he gives of the situation in his home district. It is very valuable for me to hear about this directly from the member.
Swedish industry is the heart and the engine of our unique prosperity. That we have a competitive industry with manufacturing jobs, as it is sometimes called, is completely central. It is central for our labor market to function, but it is also central for other types of services to be in demand around the manufacturing industry.
That we are competitive is central. It is the entire government's responsibility, in the very difficult global environment we find ourselves in, to constantly try to do what we can as a nation and as a member of a union to ensure that we have an industry that is vibrant and that can withstand international competition.
I will, of course, respond directly to Hedemora municipality. But I am naturally always ready to listen to more ideas, more impressions, and more stories about how it looks on the Swedish labor market and about the challenges that companies and individuals face.
Lars Isacsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for Employment for the answer. It feels reassuring when the Minister for Employment speaks about Swedish industry as the heart of Swedish prosperity. When we shut down large parts of Sweden during the pandemic, it showed who kept the country up.
I come from Bergslagen, which was once spoken of as Sweden's economic cradle. Nowadays it is referred to as Sweden's "badlands" and rust belt. We have had industry, but it is gone, we are told. Then we feel: What the hell, go and check – it is here! It has been here since 1630!
We have today discussed a situation that is crucial for the future of Hedemora and for the Swedish steel industry. In Vikmanshyttan, 500 years of iron and steel production are now coming to an end. In Långshyttan, the wheels continue to turn. Municipalities that already bear large costs must now take on further responsibility when professional steelworkers lose their jobs.
These are people in the middle of their professional lives. They are not the long-term unemployed who need general action programs. They need transition with quality and state support. They also need a government that acts directly against the price dumping from China.
What I wish for is – and here I think the Minister for Employment has been accommodating – that the Minister for Employment meets Hedemora municipality, the municipal councilor David Aura, the unions and the industry and discusses concrete measures, and that Sweden clearly stands behind European measures against unfair competition on the global steel market.
Madam Speaker! I hope and believe that the Minister truly takes this seriously, for the jobs in Hedemora and Bergslagen and for the steel industry, so that one does not once again, as so often previously, feel that the industrial towns are left to their fate.
Arbetsmarknadsministern Johan Britz (L)
Madam Speaker! It is interesting on a general level that the image of the manufacturing industry in Sweden is incorrect in so many instances. It is said that it would be dangerous and dirty, have poor working conditions and so on, but that is not the case. We have a world-class industry, and as has been said, that is what is the engine of our prosperity. We can probably, with joint efforts, do things to rectify that image.
I have personally been to Västerås and looked at the production of a device that protects large transformers from incorrect power spikes. Yesterday, I visited Scania's engine production. I believe that we constantly need to remind people of the industry's role for our prosperity in Sweden. It will also create power to ensure that the conditions are good, so that we can manage the competition, but also strengthen our voice in the EU. That is the path we are taking.
I also want to emphasize that I feel quite secure with the transition organizations that we have in Sweden and which the unions and employers have negotiated jointly. The state is not involved there. But both TRR and TSL exist for the employees who are now being laid off. They have very good results and high-quality transition when a person loses their job.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.