Hamnarbetarförbundet och tiden: Ett fackförbund och identitet

Sammanfattning: Swedish trade unions exist in an almost homogeneous landscape. But some unions stand outside of this system of big labour organizations negotiating with the employers' association for collective agreements. One union that has been standing on the outskirts of this system are a union for dockworkers: Svenska Hamnarbetarförbundet. This union also has a system of direct democracy. Instead of having technocrats negotiating and deciding about the collective agreements, like in most labour unions in Sweden. By interviewing representative for the dockers union I’m trying to detect how they create an identity around their union. The finding is that the informants constructs part of their identity depending on the prominence of hauntology, a lack of ability to see any future and thereby create their perception of the future—not from new concepts but from old ones. But the informant also uses other factors to construct their identity, for example the creation of identity in contrast to other actors in the harbour.