Elon Musk is reportedly taking a zealot stance against a union strike in Sweden that is expanding and potentially now crippling operations for Tesla in the country.
Earlier this month, Tesla service workers in Sweden started striking in order to get included in a collective agreement.
The automaker has always had a hard stance against unions, and it has been able to fend off unionization efforts at its manufacturing facilities.
This new effort seemed to be manageable for Tesla since it would just involve about 100 service workers in Sweden, but it has now grown into the most serious effort that Tesla had to deal with to date.
That’s because several other unions in the country have joined forces to mess with Tesla’s operations in order to put pressure on the company.
Port workers, electricians, and cleaning services that deal with Tesla in the country have refused to work with the company since the service workers announced the strike.
Elon Musk, who has been vocal about his disdain of unionization efforts at Tesla, has reportedly taken a hard stance against the strike in Sweden.
Tesla Sweden reportedly communicated to IF Metall, the union supporting the Tesla workers, that it was told directly by Musk not to sign any collective bargaining agreement.
The move has reportedly resulted in a complete standstill in the negotiation.
But now there’s another effort that might force Tesla to go back to the negotiation table.
PostNord workers, who deliver license plates for the Swedish Transport Agency, are now refusing to deliver license plates for Tesla.
Top comment by Chris
I don't understand the people who just keep saying the workers don't want a union etc etc how do we know this? Has there been a vote. It seems super simple to settle this if the people making that claim aren't simply just anti-union or pro Elon in every situation then just have a vote. The factory should have an anonymous vote if more than 50% vote for the union it's unionized if it's less than 50% it isn't. If the union wins the vote then Elon negotiates with the Union
Considering this is the only way the agency released license plates in Sweden, this could cripple Tesla’s deliveries in the country.
Musk commented on the situation – calling it insane:
While Musk finds the situation “insane,” it’s not clear if it will force him to relax his hard stance on unions or just reinforce it.
We will keep a close eye on this story.
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