Trade unionists try to impose monopoly.

In their attempt to secure a monopoly trade unions attack and intimidate workers who are don’t pay them protection money. Sofia Appelgren and some of her staff are learning this first hand.

Sofia opened a salad bar in Gothenburg, Sweden named Wild n’ Fresh. The Times reports that her small business has attracted “the wrath of union militants who have picketing the place for the past month.”

As the union sees it the employees here must be forced to pay them monthly protection. Sofia has two and sometimes three staff members depending on how busy things get. The workers have no desire to join a union and are all paid above union wages anyway.

Sofia says the union has said “if I don’t sign, they will bankrupt me. But my employees are not union members and don’t want to be.” She wants to know, “Why can’t the unions just leave us alone?”

Of course the union thugs pretend that they are doing this for the benefit of the workers. Rubbish. More oppression has been done in the name of “helping people” than for any other reason. A trade unionist who was passing out literature urging people to boycott the restaurant claimed that Sofia was abusing her staff, something the staff apparently is unaware of. He said: “Unless we stand up for the workers our system of security and solidarity will be swept away.” Gee, that sounds tempting.

But according to Times the attempt by the union to intimidate people is having a backlash. The paper reports “a surge of public sympathy” which has “produced a new word, studata, meaning ‘to eat out of solidarity’, an activity that is boosting Appelgren’s sales.”

With her staff not wishing to join the unionist monopoly and with public support Sofia says she will not cave in though she is considering leaving Sweden with her boyfriend to set up a company someplace where it is not so regulated. The Times reports that Swedes are the least likely people in Europe to even try to establish their own business.

Sweden's economic standing in the OECD has been dropping steadily. And if the country were an American state it would have one of the lowest average incomes of any state.