Ulla Lindquist, Vice-President of LO-Sweden

Ulla Lindquist began to work as a stock room worker at the engineering company Alfa Laval in Södertälje after having finished upper secondary school.

In the ladies’ dressing-room there was no shower. Ulla asked the trade union club why and that is how her trade union commitment started.

- Ever since my teens I wanted to change things. Vice secretary of the local club was my first union assignment, Ulla says.

After some years the political commitment came in the first place and Ulla was employed at SSU (the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League) in Södertälje.

After only one year she was offered employment at the headquarters of IF Metal (the metalworkers confederation). To start with, she worked with working environment issues but became later on deputy negotiating secretary as well as elected Union Secretary of IF Metal. After more than 20 years at the IF Metal, she was elected Second Vice President of LO in September 2000.

The determination to fight against injustice is what has been, and still is, her driving force. Equal wages for equal work, development, training at work and a good working environment should characterize the labour market.

As Vice President of LO, Ulla is responsible for issues close to her heart, i. e. issues that have accompanied her during her whole trade union commitment: work environment and rehabilitation, development at work and skills development, but also research, information technology, trade union studies, the right to trade union work and cultural issues.

Ulla lives in an apartment in central Stockholm. She has two daughters and one son. In her spare time she prefers reading detective stories, music, dancing and travels to sunny places.

Her personal ideals are numerous; all those women who fought for equal rights and for the right to form their own lives, for example Kata Dahlström and Alva Myrdal.

One of my strong points is to be able to talk with people, I listen and of course I’m stubborn. Honesty and empathy are qualities that I appreciate, Ulla Lindqvist says.

Short facts:

Ulla Lindqvist, Vice president.

Born in 1954.

In 1979 employed at the headquarters of IF Metal .

In 1990 elected deputy Negotiating Secretary of IF Metal.

In 1993 Elected Union Secretary of IF Metal .

In 2000 Elected Second Vice President of LO.

In 2008 Elected Vice President of LO.