Elon Musk/Tesla trying to screw around in Sweden

Spiritual_Chaos

The labor dispute over Tesla's refusal to sign a collective wage agreement in Sweden has escalated into a dramatic labor battle.

Unions representing multiple industries announced this week that they would join the strike in solidarity with IF Metall, the Tesla mechanics' trade union.

The standoff started in late October with a walkout led by IF Metall.

In Sweden, which doesn't have minimum wage legislation for workers, about 90% of employees are covered by collective agreements involving unions and employers.

IF Metall describes the agreements as "the backbone of the Swedish model" and said it's been trying to negotiate one with Tesla for the last five years.

The union said Tesla wages are below the industry average in Sweden, and it wants to secure better pensions and insurance guarantees.

As talks have stalled once again this week, the union is ramping up its efforts.

On Friday, dockworkers, who've been refusing to unload Tesla vehicles at four major Swedish ports for several weeks, will extend their blockade to all ports in the country.

They will be joined by cleaners from the Swedish Building Maintenance Workers' Union, who will stop working at Tesla-owned locations from 12 p.m. local time.

About 50 members of the union clean four Tesla showrooms and service centers, Wired reported, adding that the labor action was the "biggest union action the company has faced anywhere in the world."

The cleaners were joining the labor action "simply because the [IF] Metall Workers Trade Union asked us to," ombudsman Torbjörn Jonsson told Wired.

If Tesla doesn't cave after three days of strikes, Sweden's postal workers have also announced that they will join the strikes and stop delivering letters, spare parts, and pallets to Tesla.

"The fight that IF Metall is now taking is important for the entire Swedish collective agreement model," Seko, the union representing postal workers, said in a statement.

https://www.businessinsider.com/teslas-problems-sweden-getting-worse-dockworkers-join-strikes-2023-11?r=US&IR=T



Gives people flashbacks of Toys R' Us trying to pull the same shit in the 90s. But lost:

Without warning, colleague after colleague was called over the public address system. In total, almost two-thirds of the workforce had to leave in front of shocked colleagues.

- We talked to each other a lot after that. Everyone found it incredibly unpleasant and very insensitively handled. It was also when it started to emerge that they had cameras everywhere, says Veronika Alneborn Ödmark.

She remembers how the staff began to question the working environment more and more. That they were monitored at work. That all the windows on the upper floor were locked to avoid theft.

How they were forced to sign documents in English where they would take responsibility if they had an accident.

At this time, Toys R Us had never signed a collective agreement in any of the many countries they operated in. And they did not intend to do so in Sweden either. In May, the strike was a fact.

It began with a blockade against the shops in Malmö and Gothenburg. Stockholm expired a week later.

In the book Strike at Toys R Us, it is described how seven trade unions were already involved in what is described as a "pincer manoeuvre" in May.

Transport refused to take goods out and the Seafarers' Union blocked transport by sea. Fastighets refused to clean and Kommunal stopped picking up garbage.

When the company continued to refuse to sign an agreement, Seko also stepped in and stopped postal shipments and the possibility of using a postal order.

The strike was seen as a matter of fate for the trade union movement and the TCO union Finansförbundet also joined the blockade. Suddenly, Toys R Us could no longer perform bank transactions.

https://arbetet.se/2020/09/15/sa-tvingade-svenska-fack-amerikansk-leksaksjatte-till-kollektivavtal/


Wanted to bring in German LIDL as an example. Lidl were criticized when hey established here, but turns out they signed a collective agreement from day one. Had other problems though, that they "fixed". Amazon doesn't have one. But I think they do business in Sweden through a subcontractor that do.

Swedish companies Klarna and Spotify are examples of "bigger" Swedish companies that have also been criticized for the same union resistance. 

Big story in Sweden at the moment this Tesla thing. Happy that Neil Young left "twitter".

23scidoo

Klarna saves me last years