The American tycoon Elon Musk, the largest shareholder in the automotive firm Tesla and owner of the social network Countries like Denmark and Norway are joining the protest, understanding Musk’s position as an attack on the Nordic labor market model. The aforementioned, furious, described the situation as “madness” on the X network.
His legal challenge materialized on November 27. That day, the Swedish subsidiary of Tesla sued the Swedish State in court after weeks of strikes that have paralyzed the delivery of license plates for its electric cars. The blocking of license plates is the result of the so-called sympathy strikes, which have been incorporating workers from other sectors into the initial staff of a group of mechanics.
Tesla argues that it is suing “the Swedish State through the Swedish Transport Agency” because not allowing access to the license plates “constitutes an illegal discriminatory attack directed at Tesla.” The Texas parent company does not have a manufacturing plant in Sweden, but it does have several service centers.
It all started when on October 27, to demand the collective agreement that Musk denies them, 130 mechanics affiliated with the powerful Swedish union IF Metall started a strike in seven workshops where electric cars are repaired. 90% of Sweden’s employees work within the framework of collective agreements signed for each sector. The strike in Sweden against the American car giant Tesla, which refuses to sign a collective agreement on wages, illustrates a clash between Swedish and European work culture and the American way of approaching the labor market.
In solidarity with the mechanics, workers from eight other unions have joined in with sympathy strikes that apply exclusively to activities linked to Tesla while they work normally on other duties. “This is a very important issue for us for three reasons,” explains Veli-Pekka Säikkälä, recruitment secretary of the IF Metall union, from Stockholm.
“One is that Tesla employees must have a collective agreement with the appropriate conditions. Another is that we must have competitive neutrality in Sweden, so that Tesla does not compete thanks to distortions of competition. And thirdly, it is a fight for the Swedish labor model; “We are defending the Swedish collective bargaining system.” Säikkälä insists that they will not give in: “We are prepared for this dispute to last a long time.” However, in numerical terms, it is difficult to know how many people are supporting the strikes, but it could be thousands.
The initial protest by the mechanics was joined by the port workers, who no longer load or unload Tesla cars; cleaning workers, who no longer clean the firm’s facilities; painters refusing to paint Teslas at car painting companies; workers from the Swedish subsidiary of the Norwegian company Hydro, who have stopped manufacturing parts for Tesla; and since November 20, postal employees, who no longer process correspondence related to the automotive company. Result: license plates issued by the Swedish Transport Agency are not being delivered, as the regulations state that they must be delivered through the Swedish postal service, PostNord AB, whose employees refuse to do so.
Now, in addition, sympathy strikes reach neighboring Denmark and Norway. The rumor that, to avoid the blockade by Swedish dockers, Tesla would try to unload its cars in Danish ports and then transport them by truck to Sweden, has caused the United Federation of Danish Workers, known as 3F, to mobilize. “This means that our port workers and drivers will not receive or transport Tesla cars to Sweden,” 3F announced in a statement on Tuesday. The port of Esbjerg, on the Danish west coast, is the only one where Tesla cars arrive by ship, and will begin not processing them on December 20, unless the company agrees to sign the Swedish agreement before that date.
Yesterday the Norwegian unions also spoke out. Jørn Eggum, secretary of the United Federation of Trade Unions (Fellesforbundet), called on Tesla to accept the agreement with the Swedish IF Metall before December 20, or “we will proceed with the implementation of boycott actions; “This is a clear signal to Tesla that they cannot transport Swedish Teslas through Norway.” Employees of automobile repair shops are unionized in Fellesforbundet.
