cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1173833
In what has been portrayed as the largest fight in decades to save Sweden’s union model from global labour practices, the powerful trade union IF Metall has been leading a strike across eight Tesla workplaces in Sweden for five weeks.
It is the first time workers for the US carmaker have gone on strike and on Thursday, Musk, the tech billionaire and chief executive of Tesla, made his feelings clear, writing on X, formerly Twitter: “This is insane.”
He was responding to a social media post about secondary, or sympathy, strikes by Swedish postal services that are preventing licence plates reaching new Tesla cars.
The Tesla strike has attracted secondary action from eight other unions and is threatening to spread to neighbouring Norway, where Fellesförbundet (the United Federation of Trade Unions), the country’s largest private sector union, said it was prepared to take sympathy action.
The strike has gained support from transport and harbour workers, who have refused to load or unload Tesla cars in all Swedish ports; electricians who have refused to carry out service or repair at Tesla’s workshops; and charging stations and painters, who will not work on Tesla cars. Other sympathy strikes include those by service and communication workers, who have stopped distributing post and shipments to Tesla.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It is the first time workers for the US carmaker have gone on strike and on Thursday, Musk, the tech billionaire and chief executive of Tesla, made his feelings clear, writing on X, formerly Twitter: “This is insane.”
He was responding to a social media post about secondary, or sympathy, strikes by Swedish postal services that are preventing licence plates reaching new Tesla cars.
Marie Nilsson, the chair of IF Metall, said the strike was not only a fight for Tesla workers, but to protect the Swedish union model.
Other sympathy strikes include those by service and communication workers, who have stopped distributing post and shipments to Tesla.
Some commentators have suggested that the action at Tesla could start conversations at the Swedish division of Spotify, the streaming firm, which earlier this year pulled out of talks about a collective agreement, saying it did not believe that would “add any significant value” for employees.
Comparing it to strikes in 1995 at Toys R Us, which the unions won, he said: “My guess is that Tesla will not remain in Sweden without collective arrangement.
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