“Shame On You, Tesla, Shame On You!” Sweden’s Labor Unions Fight Back
Tesla is facing its most serious labor dispute ever in Europe as dock workers in Sweden threaten to block deliveries of new Teslas entering the country. If the November 7 blockade is enacted, “no Teslas will be able to enter Sweden” in the 4 ports of Malmö, Gothenburg, Trelleborg, and Södertälje, says union chair Tommy Wreeth. It’s part of “sympathy measures” as labor unions reinforce the efforts of other workers who are currently on strike against Tesla, as reported by Wired.
The Swedish Transport Workers’ Union represents 57,000 workers. They are rallying to stand by metal workers at Tesla’s Swedish 7 repair shops who have been on strike since October 27. Their dispute rests with Tesla’s refusal to sign a collective agreement with their union, IF Metall. Collective agreements in Sweden are quite common and outline terms of pay, pensions, and working conditions. Without a collective agreement, these repair shop workers earn less and lack the same benefit packages as the others in their field.
Around 90% of Swedish employees are covered by collective agreements. “We would like our members working at Tesla to have the same benefits as basically everybody else on the Swedish labor market,” says Jesper Pettersson, spokesperson for IF Metall. “We don’t see any reason why Tesla should play by different rules.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has consistently rejected calls to allow the company’s 127,000 employees worldwide to unionize.
“Shame on you, Tesla, shame on you!” Stefan Löfven, former Swedish Social Democrat Prime Minister and former IF Metall leader, exclaimed. Löfven’s message was posted on Facebook on Sunday, October 29. It revealed he would be boycotting Elon Musk’s cabs and encouraged others to postpone a purchase of a Tesla “until an agreement is signed.”
The first stage of the strike affected some 130 mechanics, but the strike was expanded on Friday to include some 470 more workers at 17 other facilities. These facilities service many brands of vehicles, but the work stoppage on repairing cars only applies to Teslas. What does that look like? The workers attend their usual shifts, and they work on other car models as assigned. The Teslas that have been brought in for repairs sit unattended.
According to the union, discussions with the company collapsed on October 24. Refusing to sign the branch agreements, Tesla representatives reportedly indicated that the group “has no collective agreement anywhere in the world,” and “this is a decision that must be made at the highest level of the company,” related Veli-Pekka Säikkälä, who is in charge of negotiations of collective agreements at IF Metall.
The union met with Tesla again over the past week and has another meeting planned for Monday.
The labor dispute is about quality of work and its conditions, but it’s also about defending the whole Swedish labor market model. “In Sweden, unions and employers agree on working conditions, within the framework of collective bargaining,” IF Metall President Marie Nilsson explained to Le Monde.
The last conflict during which the metallurgical union compensated its striking members dates back to 2010. It has threatened to stop work since then, but the threat has not been carried out, as a compromise was reached before the strike was called. IF Metall has been attempting to get Tesla to sign a collective agreement with workers in its repair shops since 2018 and is committed to a long strike, if necessary.
“The electric vehicle is a symbol of the whole green transition, and it’s a big irony that Tesla is refusing to engage in the social dimension of the big transition that we’re going through,” says Claes Mikael Ståhl, deputy general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, a nonprofit that represents workers across the EU.
Sweden is part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which is an international organisation that works “to build better policies for better lives.” As one of OECD’s best performers in reducing GHG emissions, Sweden is making gains toward embracing a green industrial revolution, but it requires people and skills to run industry and complementary public services.
Will Sweden’s Labor Unions Set the Example for the UAW?
Tesla workers in the US have made several failed attempts to unionize. In April, the US National Labor Relations Board ruled that the company violated local labor law by telling employees not to discuss pay or other working conditions or bring complaints to managers.
Yet US labor unions have historically been tenacious against automakers, as shown by recent victories against Stellantis, Ford, and GM, and it’s likely Tesla will be their next target.
“One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract victory is to organize like we’ve never organized before,” UAW leader Fain said, as quoted by Bloomberg. “When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won’t just be with a Big Three, but with a Big Five or Big Six.”
Fain has called Tesla, Toyota, and Honda workers “UAW members of the future.”
Tesla’s 20,000-worker plant in Fremont, California, currently has a UAW organizing committee whose members are reportedly talking to coworkers about the advantages of collective bargaining.
“Car prices are way up, but it’s not because of worker wages, low inventory, or anything but corporate greed,” Fain said during a Facebook Live presentation on Saturday afternoon. “In the past 4 years, the average price of a new car is up by 30% and more. The profits of those higher prices were not passed on to the workers who made those vehicles. Instead, it went straight into the pockets of shareholders and corporate executives.”
Tesla made profits in its early years on its premium priced electric vehicles (EVs) by developing a supply chain that now brings more affordable and sustainable high-tech cars to the middle class. It attracts an audience with a passion for transportation efficiency, high tech adoption, and a sustainable footprint. Yet labor unions are arguing that the all-electric car company has neglected a key social responsibility: it has violated an ethical rule in which workers deserve a satisfactory quality of life.
What are the chances that, in the same way that the Detroit Three and others have agreed to adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS), so, too, will Tesla compromise with labor unions and come to terms with union demands? Time will tell.
The full report on the GM agreement is available at www.uaw.org/GM2023.
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