“Vi kräver kollektivavral!” This is what it says in large, white letters on a red banner stretched in front of the fence of a Tesla service center in Segeltrop, Sweden. “We demand a collective agreement!”
What the 130 Tesla mechanics and engineers in seven workshops have been demanding since the end of October is actually a given in Sweden. “The collective agreement has been part of Sweden since 1905. Today, 90 percent of all employees are covered by it,” writes the union IF metal
, which is responsible for the workforce. Tesla boss Elon Musk (52), however, rejects unions and collective agreements – including in Sweden. The country only plays a minor role as a market for Tesla; the US car manufacturer only generates around two percent of its group sales in the country. But the dispute threatens to escalate – and has become a precedent for both sides.
The Swedish problem is already becoming a Scandinavian problem – and could even have global implications.
It is important to know that collective agreements are an elementary part of Swedish economic culture. There is no legal minimum wage in the country. Traditionally, unions and employers negotiate employees’ wages, pensions and vacation entitlements in collective agreements without government interference. Since the practice was introduced in the 1930s, the model has brought high stability to the Swedish economy and relatively few real labor disputes. Between 2010 and 2021, Sweden lost an average of only 8,100 working days per year due to strikes In Norway and Finland, which have a similar basic model, there were almost 15 times as many at 120,000
, reports the Guardian.
The conflict with Tesla has been raging for five years and is torpedoing the consensus supported by large parts of society. When Musk even had strikebreakers flown in from abroad to keep work going in the service centers, it triggered a real wave of protests in the kingdom and other Scandinavian countries. Even the automotive industry employers’ association called on Tesla to give in. The Swedish model is based on companies having collective agreements, their representative Hanna Alsén wrote in the newspaper “Dagens Nyhete”: “We would like Tesla to be there too.”
Dock workers, electricians and postal workers are on strike
There have been a good twelve since the end of October other Swedish unions expressed solidarity with the Tesla mechanics
and are causing a stir with boycott and embargo campaigns: dock workers are refusing to unload Tesla vehicles in Swedish ports. Electricians stop maintenance work on Tesla charging stations. Mail from the car manufacturer and therefore license plates for Tesla customers are left behind because delivery staff do not deliver packages and letters – rightly so, as a court recently ruled, dismissing a lawsuit by Tesla. So-called “sympathy strikes” are not banned in Sweden. Quote Musk: “They are crazy.”
But that’s not all: the city cleaning employees have announced that they will no longer collect waste from the Tesla workshops from December 24th as long as Musk does not have a collective agreement signed. It’s as if the entire country is banding together against the car manufacturer.
And solidarity now extends beyond Sweden’s borders. In Denmark, Norway and Finland, unionized transport workers have agreed to no longer unload Tesla vehicles from Sweden at their ports. Conversely, workers in Norway, where eight out of ten newly registered vehicles are electric cars, want to block the delivery of Tesla vehicles to Sweden if the manufacturer does not reach an agreement with Swedish workers by December 20th.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund calls for respect for workers’ rights
The financial industry also finds unusually clear words: at the beginning of December, one of Denmark’s largest pension funds, PensionDanmark, separated from its $70 million stake in Tesla, and another pension fund with around half as many shares announced that it would follow suit. Shortly afterwards demanded 16 Scandinavian investors from Scandinavia called on Tesla to give in to the conflict in Sweden
. “We as Nordic investors recognize the decades-old tradition of collective bargaining and call on Tesla […] to reconsider its current stance towards unions,” says the letter from the investors, who collectively manage around $1 trillion in assets.
Even Norway’s $1.5 trillion sovereign wealth fund commented: “We expect the companies we invest in to respect fundamental human rights, including workers’ rights,” said fund operator Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM). The fund is the world’s largest stock market investor and the seventh largest Tesla shareholder with around 1 percent of the shares worth $7.15 billion.
Also a precedent for Elon Musk
It has long been about the principle. And for both sides. “If Tesla were to conclude a collective agreement in Sweden, it would show workers in other countries that this red line is not irrefutable,” said Lars Calmfors recently
, professor of international economics at Stockholm University, in an interview with “Business Insider”. Musk is not afraid of the consequences of a collective agreement in Sweden, but rather that unions are also demanding collective agreements in other countries. In other words: the industrial dispute in Sweden is also a precedent for Elon Musk.
In the USA, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union around frontman Shawn Fein (52) is already taking a stand. He has just joined US manufacturers Ford, GM and Stellantis after a week-long strike achieved historic wage increases. Now the resurgent UAW wants to target the non-union manufacturers – above all Tesla, which dominates the future-oriented electric car market and therefore, from the UAW’s perspective, has to be kept on a short leash. It is said that Elon Musk is the “richest man in the world”. on the UAW website
in ideological saber rattling. “U.S. production has more than doubled since 2020 and Tesla sales are booming. The question is: Will Tesla workers get their fair share?” The UAW activists give the answer themselves: “It’s time for Tesla workers to stand up and fight for more.”
, that the UAW faces an uphill battle. A successfully enforced collective agreement in Sweden could help Fein and his people argue. And also at IG Metall, which has the working conditions in Europe’s largest Tesla factory in Brandenburg already massively criticized
, a success for the Swedish sister union IF Metal around boss Marie Nilsson could give new impetus.
The fronts in Sweden have hardened. So believe Esben Pedersen
, who paved the way for Tesla in Scandinavia as the responsible communicator and strategist for eight years, that the car manufacturer has cornered itself in Sweden. He predicts in an interview with the “New York Times”
: Even if Elon Musk offered the mechanics more than demanded, “the strike would probably last until Tesla agrees to a collective bargaining agreement.”
And if not? “Then Tesla can leave the country,” recently threatened Susanna Gideonsson (60), head of the Swedish trade union federation LO, in an interview
with “Dagens Industri”. Whether the end result is a collective agreement or expulsion, as Gideonsson predicts, in both cases it would be akin to a victory of “David against Goliath”.
There are prominent role models for this. After years of struggling for a collective agreement, the Swedish fintech company Klarna recently had to give in. Shortly before the employees went on strike, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski (42) gave in and reached an agreement with the trade union a collective agreement
. And what many in Sweden still remember: When the US toy company “Toys R Us” tried to bypass the unions and impose its own wage regulations in 1995, the company gave up after three months of strikes in Sweden and across Europe a
.
Musk now seems to realize that he needs professionals when dealing with Swedish unions and resolving the conflict. This is what Tesla is looking for, according to one Job advertisement on your own job platform
a specialist for the Scandinavian region. The job description leaves it open whether you are looking for a trouble shooter who can approach the other side constructively or a skilled string puller and lobbyist. The person should necessarily have “extensive experience in advocacy in Nordic legislation and regulation”. The requirement profile also includes “developing political positions and bringing about positive changes in the five countries to support Tesla’s mission.”
The only question is what “changes” Elon Musk specifically means.