Denmark’s biggest labor union has joined the strike carried out by Tesla mechanics in Sweden. The news increases the pressure on Tesla to recognize collective bargaining rights for its employees.
IF Metall, the Swedish trade union representing the mechanics, has been on strike for six weeks. The strike has garnered support from workers across Sweden, most notably postal workers and dock workers.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has shown little sympathy. Musk recently took the postal service to court for delaying the delivery of license plates.
In response, the Danish union 3F Transport is now participating in a “sympathy strike” to prevent dock workers and drivers from handling and transporting Tesla cars destined for Sweden. All union members are supporting this strike.
According to The Guardian, industry watchers believed that Tesla might try to bypass the Swedish dock worker strikes by delivering their cars to Danish ports and transporting them by truck to Sweden. With 3F’s sympathy strike, this won’t happen.
By staging the sympathy strike, 3F aims to get Tesla to sign a collective agreement at the earliest opportunity.
The strikes could eventually spread to Norway too. Fellesforbundet (Norway’s biggest private-sector union) has previously stated its willingness to prevent Swedish Tesla cars from entering the country.
Tesla’s Sweden strike has dragged on for so long because Swedish workers fear that the company is a threat to the nation’s labor model.
Unlike the United States, Sweden has few laws guaranteeing workers’ rights. For instance, Sweden has no national minimum wage.
To compensate for this, approximately 90 percent of Sweden’s workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements. Tesla, which is well-known for its hostility to unions, is refusing to sign a collective bargaining agreement with the striking mechanics.
The trade union movement is afraid that if Tesla wins, other multinational companies will refuse to sign collective bargaining agreements with their Swedish workers.
IF Metall is prepared to continue the Swedish Tesla workers’ strike for as long as necessary. The union says that its $1.26 billion fund can pay striking workers for decades.
Image Source: Nicklas
