The Latest
Electricians and dockworkers across Sweden on Friday joined a widening effort by unions in the country to pressure Tesla to sign a collective bargaining agreement with its mechanics.
The labor action expanded three weeks after the autoworkers’ union, IF Metall, called a strike against Tesla in an effort to secure a collective arrangement over pay and working conditions for its roughly 120 members who work as mechanics for the electric vehicle maker. In the latest move, dockworkers at dozens of ports refused to unload cars from ships and electricians stopped repair work at the company’s charging stations, highlighting the power of organized labor in a country where collective agreements cover nine in 10 of all employees.
Tesla in Sweden: No production but many sales.
Tesla does not produce any vehicles in Sweden, but runs several facilities where the cars are serviced. So far this year, the Tesla Model Y is the best-selling new car in Sweden, with more than 14,000 registrations through October, according to Mobility Sweden, an industry group.
At the outset of the mechanics’ strike, a Tesla representative told Swedish media that the company followed labor laws in the country, and that it chose not to sign a collective agreement. The company said it would do what it could to keep its business operating.
Quotable: ‘It is both important and obvious that we help.’
The Swedish Transport Workers’ Union, whose members work at Sweden’s docks, said in a statement that “it is both important and obvious that we help, to stand up for the collective agreement and the Swedish labor market model.”
How It Started: Mechanics at Tesla went on strike on Oct. 27.
In late October, IF Metall, which represents 300,000 workers in Sweden, including some of Tesla’s mechanics, said talks with company representatives had ended without resolution. The union began the strike action at Tesla’s 12 service centers on Oct. 27.