Against Tesla’s resistance to sign a collective agreement in Sweden, more and more trade unions are joining, but not only them. One of the supporters of the strikes is Tesla’s seventh largest shareholder, who holds shares worth more than 154 billion crowns.
Tesla’s Swedish division has had a very difficult life since October of this year. In this Nordic country, where it is common for employees of all kinds to join a trade union, Tesla’s fierce opposition to unions has met with respectable solidarity among workers across industries.
First, car mechanics went on strike, later port employees and electricians joined. The post office followed – and now a transport workers’ union is threatening to stop collecting waste at Tesla branches in Sweden.
“This type of solidarity action is very rare. We are doing this to protect Swedish collective agreements and the security of the Swedish labor market model,” Tommy Wreeth, head of the Swedish Transport Workers’ Union, said in a statement. “Tesla cannot ignore common practice in the Swedish labor market,” he added.
The strike, which will take the form of uncollected garbage from Tesla service centers and car dealerships, will begin on December 24 unless Tesla agrees to a collective agreement with the IF Metall union. The automaker still stubbornly refuses to do so, claiming that its employees have the same or better conditions than the contract requires.
Large Nordic pension funds also joined the Swedish strikers – albeit “only” for moral support and diplomatic pressure on the car company. They also include Tesla’s seventh largest shareholder, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, which holds $6.8 billion worth of shares in the automaker. Other pension funds supporting the strike, which are also Tesla investors, include Norway’s KLP and Denmark’s PFA.
Another development is also the lawsuit of the Swedish division of Tesla with the post office over the delivery of license plates. The appeals court overturned the ruling, which allowed Tesla to pick up the signs directly instead of being required to have them delivered by post like everyone else. The matter thus returns to the lower court.
2023-12-15 05:00:00
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