From the begiining of the 20th century producer co-operative bacon factories were established in the south of Sweden. In his thesis Lars Hansson studies how class relations were shaped and transformed within this rural industry. The producer co-operative slaughter associations consisted of a large number of members from smallholders to large scale agrarian producers. The power of the associations was concentrated in the hands of the big producers, but the manangers also had a considerable power, due to their expert knowledge of the buisness and the bacon markets in U.K.

The workers of the producer co-operative slaughter houses were mostly unskilled workers, with little or no knowledge of butchering. From the 1910’s the workers unionized but their organisation was not accepted by the employers and harsh labour disputes took place during the 1920’s. From the 1930’s the farmers producer co-operative movement grew all over Sweden and they formed a political alliance with the Social democratic Party. The Swedish labour market became more peaceful as the employers and the unions began to co-operate to a greater extent. The Food Workers Union was more and more integrated in the Swedish society and thereby lost its earlier antisystemic character and were more and more transformed into a systemic movement. The slaughter house workers union had a distinct patriarchal characters from its start and its attitude towards women workers was ambivalent. During WWII, however, the attitude changed and more women were active in class practice in order to improve their situation.