Arne Geijer (born 7 May 1910, in Söderala, Söderhamn Municipality, Hälsingland, died 27 January 1979 in

Bromma Bromma () is a Boroughs of Stockholm, borough (''stadsdelsområde'') in the western part of Stockholm, Sweden, forming part of the Stockholm Municipality. Bromma is primarily made up of Bromma Parish and Västerled Parish. The fourth largest airpo ...

, Stockholm) was a Swedish

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

organizer. Geijer left school when he was thirteen and began working in agriculture. He later completed an apprenticeship as a toolmaker, and joined the

Swedish Metalworkers' Union The Swedish Metalworkers' Union ( often shortened in text and speech to simply ''Metall'') was a trade union in Sweden. History The union was founded in Stockholm on 21 May 1888, and had 555 members by the end of the year. Although the Swedish ...

. At the age of 28 he began working full-time for the union as its director of education, and in 1945 he won election as its general secretary, also taking up a position of the council of the

International Metalworkers' Federation The International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) was a global union federation of metalworkers' trade unions, founded in Zürich, Switzerland in August 1893. the IMF had more than 200 member organisations in 100 countries, representing a combine ...

. In 1955, Geijer was elected to the upper house of the

Riksdag The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the parliamentary sovereignty, supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportional rep ...

, representing the

Swedish Social Democratic Party The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( , S or SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( ), is a social democratic political party in Sweden. The party is member of the Progressiv ...

. The following year, he won election as chair of the

Swedish Trade Union Confederation The Swedish Trade Union Confederation ( ; literally "The National Organisation in Sweden"), commonly referred to as LO (), is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for fourteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly "blue-c ...

, and from 1957 he held these two posts alongside being president of the

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) was an international trade union. It came into being on 7 December 1949 following a split within the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and was dissolved on 31 October 2006 whe ...

. In this role, he was known for his backing for the International Solidarity Fund. He was replaced as president in 1965, but remained chair of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation until 1973. In retirement, he served as chair of the Swedish National Pensioners' Organisation from 1977 until 1979.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Geijer, Arne Swedish trade unionists 1910 births 1979 deaths Arne People from Söderala