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.
So why work there in the first place? Why bother with a strike? Quit and work some place with better conditions.
Or you know, use your collective power to strike, following the model your country has based its economic rights around. Why should the workers give up their economic power to the company?
Tesla could also just follow the economic agreement that is considered fair in the area for that labor, the bare minimum contract. So odd that youre not complaining about them having poor conditions and breaking the nation’s norms.
It’s almost like both parties, Tesla and the unions, are now working in their best financial interests. Lets see which on e succeeds.
Someone will be desperate enough to work there. Now McDonald’s has a competitive advantage and other places will have to follow suit and then it‘s worse everywhere. It‘s amazing that there are places out there where regular people can actually influence anything.
Thanks for answering my question. This makes sense.