The World Federation of Trade Unions, which represents 105 million affiliates in 133 countries around the world, expresses its full solidarity with Erik Helgesson, who is informed by the management of the Port of Gothenburg, Gothenburg Roro Terminals (GRT), that they intend to dismiss him for allegedly violating the law on state security and disloyalty linked to the law on state security and that they had sued the union representative to the police.
This decision was taken by the employers after the decision of the Dockworkers’ Union on a six-day strike/blockade in January 2025 against ships transporting military equipment to and from Israel. The Employers immediately condemned this solidarity action as unacceptable and illegal. The decision of dismissal of Erik Helgesson, vice president of the Dockworkers’ Union was announced just one hour before the approval of the industrial action by the Labour Court.
This attack, which is based on a law passed in recent years under the pretext of actions directed against public security, revealed an authoritarian drift by the government of Sweden, which is also recorded in numerous other cases all over Europe and the world and constitutes an unacceptable attempt to criminalize trade union action and the fight for Peace. The WFTU supports Erik Helgesson and the Dockworkers’ Union in Sweden and his unions, supports the struggles against the genocide of the Palestinian people, and joins its voice with the working class of Sweden against these unacceptable practices.
The class-oriented trade unions all over the globe reiterate their full solidarity with the heroic Palestinians and intensify their struggle for an immediate end to the barbaric Israeli occupation and settlements and for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, as provided for in the UN resolutions.
