All on the Unionen board gone from Klarna – ”cleared”

This is a translated version of this article in swedish.

27th of October 2023. Klarna HQ on Sveavägen, Stockholm. The atmosphere is loaded, insecure, worried. Faces serious. The meeting is mandatory for all employees. There’s an outside threat. The day before, Unionen and Sveriges Ingenjörer has given notice of industrial action for a collective bargaining agreement. In front of a decorative wooden structure in white and Klarna-pink, the CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has, in his usual unruly style, just declared that neither he nor Klarna “will ever sign with Unionen”. Now he sharpens his tone:

” We are at a pivotal time in our company’s history. We go on a very bad path. One where hatred prevails, where there is a maelstrom of ever-increasing negativity and hate.”, the CEO says in a recording of the meeting that Arbetsvärlden has reviewed.

There are not enough chairs. Employees line the walls, are sat on the floor, among them Sen Kanner, chairman of the Unionen local. Her union has earlier in the meeting been described as a threat to the company’s right to think differently.

” I’m really sorry to say this, especially with Sen in the room. I have lost faith in this specific union, Unionen. I haven’t lost faith in Sen, but I’ve lost faith in unionen because of what they’ve done. And I don’t feel that that’s a good counterparty for us. So that would have to change.”, the CEO respond to a question from an employee. 

And change begin already one week later. At the end of it, all of those who were on the Unionen local board is gone from the company. With a signature they’re bound to silence under a latent threat of legal action. None of them took the initiative to leave themselves. 

– They have now cleared the board and Unionen as an organisation from the company, says ”Alex”, a previous employee at Klarna that Arbetsvärlden, as with the other anonymous sources, have given a ficticious gender-neutral name. 

An inexplicable turn of events 

The strike never happened, neither was there any CBA with Unionen. Instead, Klarna joined the employer’s association BAO and therefore, automatically, got a CBA with the union Finansförbundet as main counterpart. Unionen accepted this in an agreement with Klarna and withdrew the industrial actions and two law suits in The Swedish Labour Court. Klarna on their part, had to promise that the local could continue to function until the Finansförbundet take-over at the end of the year. 

In february 2024, the new Finansförbundet local were to be formed and the previous Unionen board member Jon-Artur Maddock-Holte announces his candidacy as chairman. With him there would be a continuity from the old board ‘s work for the past years and the new Finansförbundet board.

Arbetsvärlden ring him up the day before the meeting and he is hopeful for a reboot. The atmosphere is better, he says. He is ready, with the trust of the members, to make the work environment at Klarna better.

Two weeks later Arbetsvärlden rings him up again to see if he was indeed elected. But his response is unexpected. 

– I no longer work for Klarna. My employment was terminated a couple of weeks ago. I can’t say much more at this point, he says as the call is cut off. He does not reply when Arbetsvärlden tries to reach him again in the days following. 

It doesn’t add up. Arbetsvärlden has talked to several sources who were present at the meeting where the new club was supposed to form. 

– What happened was that the election committee put forth a proposal where the candidate had chosen to move on to other assignments outside of Klarna. There was some confusion at that point as to who was supposed to be elected as chairman, says Alexander Canizares Dahlström, union ombudsman at Finansförbundet that supports the club starting up. 

The ombudsman relates that Jon-Artur Maddock-Holte has signed an individual agreement to be terminated. Even without him there is still one person left in the new board from the old Unionen board. But as it turns out, even his employment was ended. With him all of the previous board is gone from Klarna. 

Bound to eternal silence

Arbetsvärlden has, directly or through intermediaries, been in contact with all eight who were members of the Unionen local board at the time of the strike notice. All of them says they do not want to talk about how their employment ended. None of them want to comment on why none of the board members are employed today. One of them is the previous chair Sen Kanner. 

– I can understand that it raises questions. It is nothing I can comment on, she says. 

The explanation for the silence is found in the agreements they have signed. It is a kind of buy-out-agreements used at Klarna instead of regular redundancies and dismissals for many years, which Arbetsvärlden has reported earlier.  

Arbetsvärlden has reviewed one of Klarnas termination agreements, not belonging to the board members, but according to this newspaper’s sources they have been identical in form for many years. 

The agreements state that the termination has been effected on the initiative of Klarna, however ”amicably”. The signing party may not disclose the contents of the agreement. But it does not stop there but also binds the signing party to an eternal duty of loyalty. The signee is not only prevented to disclose the contents of the agreement. He/she is not allowed to ”spread negative information” about Klarna ” or otherwise act in a way as to cause harm to the other party”. If anything in this agreement is breached the signee loses its right to the termination compensation. A potential legal dispute is to be settled in Stockholm district court. 

– I have signed pretty far-reaching loyalty clauses with Klarna. It is a rather nasty place. If there is one company that would sue their previous employees it is Klarna, says “Sam”, a previously employed legal advisor at Klarna. 

And it seems to work, the employees leave in silence. But several sources in the vicinity of the previous board confirm that six of eight board members has ended their employment before the end of the year. But today none of them remain. Arbetsvärlden’s sources are convinced that the reason was their union work and association.  

– It has always been possible to determine why people had to leave Klarna. In this case it is extremely obvious that it is because of them being union reps and that Klarna doesn’t want them occupying positions of influence. I saw them disappear one by one. You can’t say that they left on their own initiative, because they didn’t, says ”Robin” a previous employee at Klarna.

– To me it’s pretty consistant with their general anti-union attitude om before I worked there. Also in line with the personality of the CEO and others in the management. I don’t think they ever wanted to do things according to the swedish model. They resented the fact that employees organised and made demands. What we wanted was to share the power but that was never the management’s way, “Alex” says. 

CBA – Only without Sen Kanner

With a week due to Unionen’s strike Klarna announced they were intending to join the BAO. But there were conditions that was communicated to Unionen via the mediators. Unionen was to withdraw all strike action and their law suits. But there was two further conditions. If there was going to be a CBA Sen Kanner had to appear happy in a press release and then leave Klarna.

– I can’t shake the feeling there was something weird with her later leaving, says a previous union member we have opted to call “Mika”. 

Just voicing your support for a CBA could, according to Arbetsvärlden’s sources, be met with strong objections in the internal Klarna chat-channels, not only from coworkers loyal to the company, but even from the CEO himself. But to be the face of Unionen and chairman of the local has been an exposed position. 

Arbetsvärlden has reviewed several recorded meetings where Sebastian Siemiatkowski , infront of the assembled staff, has accused Unionen of lying and portrayed the union as a threat to the employees’ conditions and everything the company stands for. He portrays the union, but also their local representatives, several times as ”uneducated” and deceitful, including Sen Kanner. He repeatedly mentions her name. 

” Is that correct, Sen? It was not your decision? OK, right, but you drafted it at least, with Unionen. OK. So the point is that that draft, I can’t sign it. Because I can’t genuinely stand here, look you in the face, and say everything’s going to get better with those handcuffs. he says when he in the recorded meeting explains how a CBA will negatively impact the employees’ economy. 

But it is not the first time that the company has tried to make her quit.  

– It was fucking brutal. You have the CEO of Klarna, a very big money man, directly pointing and saying your name. It was not an easy position for her. She still faced it. Without seeming to bat an eye, ”Mika” says.

Not the first time the board is affected

It’s 2022, the 25 of May. In their homes, or were they happen to work “from home”, employees sign in to a last minute digital mass meeting with the CEO. On the screen, Sebastian Siemiatkowski was going to try to ease the minds of the staff about the ten percent downsizing the company is planning. But he is disappointed. Someone among the employees has spoken to the press. No name is mentioned. Everyone knows that Sen Kanner has given interviews in numerous media outlets and has said that the union wasn’t duly informed before the employees started getting the offers of individual termination agreements. 

“It has been 48 hours. And that people who claim to do this on behalf of our employees have spread to the press, what I think is unfair and uneducated description about this process, without even showing the courtesy of bringing that conversation up first internally in a constructive format. And by doing so, hurting the perception of the company and affecting all 7,000 employees”, the CEO says with emphasis in a recording of the meeting that Arbetsvärlden has reviewed.

The plan is executed. Shortly after it’s followed by an outsourcing of a major part of Klarna’s customer service. Some of those, whose work now would be done by other companies, is offered work there, but other positions is also removed in the process. Those who the company wants to go is offered the same type of termination agreement as mentioned earlier. At this point Unionen filed for a law suit for breach of the co-determination act, or “medbestämmandelagen”. 

When the dust had settled half of the current Unionen board is gone from the company as well as several of the locals members. 

– It was a targeted effort against the union board members. 30 percent of the company had to leave, but those who had distinguished themselves as active members were over-represented, the previous union member at Klarna “Loa” says. 

Sebastian Siemiatkowski himself explained why in the meeting where he also compared the union to pigs, as earlier exposed by Arbetsvärlden and Arbetet:

“This was clear to us that this was a group who was more engaged in unionisation because, which makes sense to me because they’re not in self control of the amount of work and we were not that good in that area, which is the reason why we also have done the outsourcing.”

In the minutes from the mandatory negotiations pending Unionen filing the law suit in june 2022, Klarna writes: 

”Only Unionen had members among the employees that might be made redundant” 

The union local chair half way out the door

At that point Sen Kanner was also given the same offer of a buy-out, but turned it down and clinged to her employment. 

– Sen got one of those offers, but stayed on and was put in a corner with work that had nothing to do with her skill-level. Five of eight involved in the local got a buy-out offer in 2022. To have that many people affected happening by chance just doesn’t hold up mathematically. But it was an effective signal sent as to what the price to be paid for involving yourself with the union, Kim Öberg, a previous union activist at Klarna, says.

– After she was singled out in the meeting and then got the buy-out-offer it became obvious that they wanted to get rid of her. When most of us in the board got the offer it was clear they wanted to get rid of all the active members, “Mika” says.

Normally a local board can be elected or replaced at the annual meeting. But according to several of Arbetsvärlden’s sources the local was always looking for new members because of the unnatural rate of them disappearing from the company. 

– You would expect most companies to avoid the appeance of discriminating union people. It was the opposite at Klarna. They were not concerned. Active union people were targeted. How should it be interpreted otherwise when you give a disproportionate amount of severance offers to members of the union board?, ex-union member at Klarna “Loa” says.

Is Klarna anti-union?

All of Arbetsvärlden’s sources consider Klarna’s conduct to be anti-union during the entire time the local has existed with the company. It was never allowed to hold meetings on the company premises. But after the local started resisting the lay-offs in 2022 the company also prohibited the ”facklig fika”, where Sen Kanner made herself available to discuss union or workplace issues in the lunch room during lunch hour. 

–They announced that it was no longer allowed because Unionen was “an external company”, Robin says.

Among the documents that Unionen has filed with the The Swedish Labour Court the union describes Klarna’s conduct in relations to the downsizing as ”one of several circumstances that clearly shows the company’s anti-union attitude”. In the documents the union describes how Klarna has ”obstructed” the local functioning and that ”the union has been deprived of its right to co-determination and influence”.

But perhaps it is not only the unions that is the object of Klarnas hostility, at least that is how the previous Klarna-lawyer “Sam” reasons. 

– I think you have to look at it from a wider perspective. It is not only an organization that hate the unions. It’s a kind of neo-liberal start-up madness that reigns. All rules that you have to consider are evil. Everything that limits the boy genious creative entrepreneurs is wrong. In that regard the unions are just another example of such a hindrance.  

Sebastian Siemiatkowski declines an interview

Arbetsvärlden has repeatedly reached out to arrange an interview with the Klarna CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, and has provided them with questions. In an e-mail however, Klarnas communications manager, Joel Hedin, relays that the CEO declines to answer questions in any form. 

The communications manager says that the decision is out of respect for the individuals concerned and due to their role as Employer. Instead he provides a general statement. 

”Klarna has signed a collective bargaining agreement with BAO and Finansförbundet and Saco. We are pleased with that. It is also very positive to have been able to sign an agreement that combines Klarna’s swiftness with the clarity of the swedish model, and that our co-workers are happy with. We have already implemented the CBA in our organisation and union locals have been created, Joel Hedin writes in an e-mail. 

The Unions see it differently

Arbetsvärlden has been in contact with representatives of Unionen. They have expressed that Klarna promised that the local would continue to function until Finansförbundet takes over.  

But in an e-mail the Unionen communicationsdepartment writes to Arbetsvärlden: “Unionen considers Klarna to have fulfilled what they took on themselves to do”.

In an interview in connection to this article the head of negociation at Unionen, Martin Wästfelt says “it can be rough” to be a union rep at a company without a CBA. He is proud of the fact that a CBA is now in place. 

That the entire board is gone and that it isn’t the first time the board is affected is, according to him, due to big organisational restructuring that the employer has a right to execute. 

– We haven’t drawn the conclusion that the actions of the employer was executed with intent to violate the right of association, Martin Wästfelt says. 

He goes on to say that he cannot comment on the individual agreements or the circumstances surrounding Sen Kanner’s leaving Klarna. 

– If a union rep finds itself in a situation and there is a voluntary discussion, then it is our job to help them to make a well thought through decision. But we don’t patronise the individual and say you should now say no to this and fight for the others. This I am proud of, the way we did it at Klarna, but also in many other places, Martin Wästfelt says. 

The two remaining members of the board in 2024, one of which is the intended new chairman Jon-Artur Maddock-Holte, switched their membership to Finansförbundet. Finansförbundet says to Arbetsvärlden that their position is that they both left Klarna ”amicably”. Since their departure no further members of the board has left Klarna.  

A pep-talk to the new local and a slap to the old

2023, the 9^th of November. The employees are back, squashed together for a new big meeting in the same room we started out in. The strike never happened. Instead the CBA happened, but not with Unionen. But the atmosphere hasn’t improved. It’s a polarized staff who line the walls and are sat on the floor. Those who supported the company stance and opposed the strike and CBA are present, as well as those who actively supported the industrial action. Both parties are confused. One because what has been previously described as something that could mean the end for Klarna now has happened. The other because it is now unclear what will happen when their union exits the company to be replaced by another. 

The CEO is excited. He starts by saying that he doesn’t want to thank those who stood up for the company against “this”. It would be to cause further division, he says. Nonetheless, before the meeting is over, he will have done it three times. This meeting will later be remembered for his analogy between the union and the pigs in “Animal Farm”.

He urges everyone to involve themselves with the new union local that is to be formed in the company and will replace the Unionen local. But he still finds time to give one last slap to the board of the old one. “This is important”, he says, and relates a meeting he once had with one of the local’s representatives. According to the CEO this representative called the downsizing  in 2022 “lay-offs”. That was “unreasonable”.

“I want to engage with people that are reasonable and when I start having those kind of conversations then I’m like: it’s going to be difficult to have a productive relationship because this is not anymore reasonable. This is driven by something else.”