Swedish union in new name proposal: 'Fack Ett'
Swedish trade union Kommunal is pondering a name-change to better reflect its members’ identity, however name proposals such as Fack Ett have prompted fears of ridicule from both branding experts and regular members.
The union, which has a history going back 102 years, started an investigation into re-branding itself in January. The findings of the study are to be presented at a congress in May next year. It will be partly based on a survey, currently carried out by market research company Sifo.
Among the new name suggestions are Fack Ett, Tjugofyrasju and Fundament, according to Aftonbladet.
However, branding experts - as well as union members - are confused as to why the union feels the need to reinvent itself:
“Fack Ett? Seriously? It sounds like a joke. How many seconds will it take before the name is translated to fuck it?” said Niclas Lövkvist, CEO of PR company Agency to the paper.
“What ridiculous names! I can’t understand why that would be necessary,” said fire fighter Per Höglund to the paper, adding that if the union wants to spend millions on renewing itself there are better ways of doing it than a name-change.
“My first thought was ‘are they planning to break the union altogether?’” said one union member to daily Aftonbladet.
However Gullbritt Adolfsson, chairwoman for Skåne district, suggested that a new name was needed to include as many members as possible.
”We need to do something about the name as many of our members are working for private companies, and they need to feel included too,” she told newspaper Aftonbladet.
Emma Nilsson, head of communications at Kommunal, didn’t want to comment on the new names:
“We aren’t even certain that we will change our name, it is just one of many questions we are trying to look into at the moment,” she told the paper.
Where the new suggestions are coming from is still a secret:
“Both internal and external personnel have been involved,” Nilsson revealed to the paper.
Trade union Kommunal, with over 500,000 members, organizes a number of professions including fire fighters, farm workers, ambulance drivers, cleaners, youth club leaders, health care staff and many others.
The Local/rm
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The union, which has a history going back 102 years, started an investigation into re-branding itself in January. The findings of the study are to be presented at a congress in May next year. It will be partly based on a survey, currently carried out by market research company Sifo.
Among the new name suggestions are Fack Ett, Tjugofyrasju and Fundament, according to Aftonbladet.
However, branding experts - as well as union members - are confused as to why the union feels the need to reinvent itself:
“Fack Ett? Seriously? It sounds like a joke. How many seconds will it take before the name is translated to fuck it?” said Niclas Lövkvist, CEO of PR company Agency to the paper.
“What ridiculous names! I can’t understand why that would be necessary,” said fire fighter Per Höglund to the paper, adding that if the union wants to spend millions on renewing itself there are better ways of doing it than a name-change.
“My first thought was ‘are they planning to break the union altogether?’” said one union member to daily Aftonbladet.
However Gullbritt Adolfsson, chairwoman for Skåne district, suggested that a new name was needed to include as many members as possible.
”We need to do something about the name as many of our members are working for private companies, and they need to feel included too,” she told newspaper Aftonbladet.
Emma Nilsson, head of communications at Kommunal, didn’t want to comment on the new names:
“We aren’t even certain that we will change our name, it is just one of many questions we are trying to look into at the moment,” she told the paper.
Where the new suggestions are coming from is still a secret:
“Both internal and external personnel have been involved,” Nilsson revealed to the paper.
Trade union Kommunal, with over 500,000 members, organizes a number of professions including fire fighters, farm workers, ambulance drivers, cleaners, youth club leaders, health care staff and many others.
The Local/rm
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