image source: https://euobserver.com/health-and-society/157701
SvD reported Tuesday that Tesla’s chairman Elon Musk recently reiterated his demand that Sweden’s Tesla branch not sign any collective agreement. This despite a strike that is only gathering steam.
Union membership down but energy is up
Union membership continues to reach new lows in Sweden. Elon Musk must have thought that now would be a good time to try breaking the Swedish collective agreement praxis. This particular pillar of Swedish employment, however, is not even bending.
IF Metall, the metal workers union, began the strike in October when their demand for a collective agreement was rejected. Elon Musk said that Tesla’s employment contract gave its workers better conditions than an agreement would, and refused them. The metal workers union struck, and other unions have successively joined the strike in solidarity.
This week, the electrician’s union, Elektriker, joined up as well. Their union members may now not work on anything to do with the distribution or production of energy for Tesla’s charging stations. Elektriker joins the transport workers union, the cleaning union, the service and communications union, the port and dockworkers union, the civil servants’ union, the painters’ union, and the builders’ union in refusing to do any work that supports Tesla. Even the musicians’ union has forbidden its members’ music from being played in Tesla cars.
Nine of ten employees’ workplace conditions are regulated by a collective agreement, according to the Swedish Mediation Office. If Tesla comes out on top in this conflict, more companies may choose to try and stay outside of any collective agreement as well. Such an outcome would be more disruptive to Sweden than any strike.