For our second bonus episode this week’s we’re going to listen to the familiar voice of our Nordic editor Richard Orange and his recent interview with Henry Catalini Smith, chairman of the Unionen trade union club at Spotify. The interview was recorded on the 14th of April, a couple of days after Unionen submitted its request to start negotiations with Spotify over the introduction of a collective bargaining agreement. 

We’ll hear why Henry Catalini Smith wanted to start a union club, how he tailored the message for Spotify’s many immigrant workers, how layoff announcements have affected the company, how management reacted to his union efforts, and much more. 

Last week, after this interview was recorded, Spotify pushed back against the drive to unionize by distributing leaflets to employees arguing against the need for a collective bargaining agreement. Read more about Spotify’s counter-arguments and other perspectives on the unionization process via the links below.

• Would foreign tech workers in Sweden gain or lose from a union deal?
• Swedish word of the day: Kollektivavtal
• INTERVIEW: ‘Spotify need to realise they’re a bigger player and should act like one’

And don’t miss our two-part interview with Sen Kanner, union club chairperson at Klarna, which you can find in the two previous episodes.

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