Elon Musk calls strikes ‘crazy’ as Swedish workers take on Tesla | Sweden

Elon Musk denounced a wave of “crazy” strikes focused on Tesla workshops in Sweden, where workers targeted the American electric car manufacturer in a strike calling for collective bargaining rights.

In what has been portrayed as the biggest battle in decades to save Sweden’s union model from global labor practices, powerful trade union IF Metall has led a strike across eight Tesla workplaces in Sweden for five weeks.

This is the first time workers at the US automaker have gone on strike, and on Thursday, Musk, the tech billionaire and Tesla CEO, made his feelings clear, Write on Xpreviously tweeted: “This is crazy.”

He was responding to a social media post about secondary or sympathy strikes by the Swedish Postal Services blocking license plates from coming to new Tesla cars.

IF Metall, which has more than 300,000 members in the Swedish industry, said it would “continue moving forward.” [with the strikes] For as long as possible.” It says it took action after Tesla refused to sign a collective agreement with its members.

Collective agreements, which cover conditions including salary, pensions, working hours and holidays, and mean, in theory, that unions and employers regulate the labor market rather than the state, are seen as a cornerstone of the Swedish labor market model.

Although union membership in Sweden has declined in recent decades, many workers remain in unions and about nine out of 10 employees have collective arrangements.

The Tesla strike has attracted secondary action from eight other unions and threatens to spread to neighboring Norway, where the country’s largest private sector federation, Fellesförbundet (Federation of Trade Unions), said it was ready to take sympathetic action.

Marie Nilsson, president of IF Metall, said the strike was not only a fight for Tesla workers, but to protect the Swedish union model. “If we allow companies like Tesla to operate without a collective agreement, it will open the way for other international companies and other types of industries,” she said. “It may take a long time,” she added. “We will continue to work as long as there is a need to do so.”

The strike was supported by transport and port workers, who refused to load or unload Tesla cars at all Swedish ports; Electricians who refused to perform service or repair at Tesla workshops; And charging stations and painters who won’t work on Tesla vehicles. Other sympathy strikes include those by service and communications workers, who stopped delivering mail and shipments to Tesla.

“We are well prepared for a long-term conflict,” said IF Metall spokesman Jesper Petersson. ““Unfortunately, we do not have ongoing talks with Tesla Sweden at the moment, but as always, we are ready to have further talks as soon as possible.”

This measure appears to affect companies outside Tesla. Shortly after the Tesla strike began, Swedish global payment company Klarna signed a collective agreement, averting a planned strike at its Stockholm headquarters.

Subsequently, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Klarna, referred to the Swedish model, saying: “I am convinced that we will benefit from this agreement and that Klarna can contribute to making the Swedish model stronger from within.”

Some commentators have suggested that Tesla’s action could start talks at the Swedish division of Spotify, the streaming company, which earlier this year pulled out of talks about a collective agreement, saying it did not believe it would “add any value.” Big” for Tesla. employees.

In Norway, where Fellesförbundet says about 500 Tesla employees have organized, union leader Jørn Eggum said it would ban Swedish Teslas from coming into the country. “Norway should not be a transit country for Tesla to get away with breaking the strike,” he told NRK radio earlier this month. “We must hold Tesla accountable and make it comply with collective agreements in the European countries where it operates.”

Jesper Hammark, an economic history researcher and visiting research fellow at the University of Gothenburg, said the strike was to defend the Scandinavian model against the American model.

Comparing it to the 1995 strikes at Toys R Us, which the unions won, he said: “I think Tesla will not stay in Sweden without a collective arrangement. The union will win. I have a hard time seeing the unions folding. The question is very important.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Spotify declined to comment.