Why the Swedish union upsets Tesla’s plans
Swedish Tesla mechanics are going on strike to obtain a collective agreement. Dock workers say they will take up the fight. What will Elon Musk's house do? The New York Times article
In Sweden, more than a week after Tesla mechanics began a strike to force the U.S. automaker to agree to a collective bargaining agreement, union officials said Tesla representatives will meet with the union this week.
The automaker, however, did not respond to a request for comment.
HOW MUCH DOES SWEDEN MATTER FOR TESLA
Tesla does not make cars in Sweden and the country is a relatively small market for the automaker. But the industrial action of dozens of mechanics is starting to have consequences. Dockworkers at the country's four largest ports said they would stop unloading ships loaded with Teslas today to support the strikers.
WHAT THE IF METALL UNION IS ASKING FOR
The IF Metall union has been asking the automaker for years to begin negotiations to adopt a collective agreement that would establish the basis for the wages and benefits of the approximately 120 mechanics hired by Tesla to work at its service facilities in Sweden. Around 90% of all workers in Sweden are covered by such agreements.
Since the union called a strike on October 27, dozens of unionized mechanics have stayed home, disrupting service appointments for some Tesla drivers. Not all union members took part in the strike, said Jesper Pettersson, a spokesman for IF Metall, acknowledging that some care facilities appeared largely unaffected.
“It's not easy to go on strike,” he added.
But the action, combined with the threat of other unions' involvement, appears to have been enough to force Tesla to the negotiating table. A meeting between the union and company representatives is scheduled for Monday, Petterson said.
THE SWEDISH ELECTRIC CAR MARKET
Despite its relatively small size, Sweden ranks third in the world for electric vehicle sales, at 32%, after Norway and Iceland, according to research organization World Resources Institute. Tesla enjoys a growing fan base and its Model Y, a sport-utility vehicle made in Germany, was the best-selling electric vehicle in Sweden this year.
THE POWER OF SWEDISH TRADE UNIONS
Tesla owner Elon Musk has resisted efforts to unionize Tesla workers for years, and in 2018 threatened to fire U.S. employees who tried to unionize (a statement that later turned out to violate laws at work).
German Bender, a labor market analyst at Arena, a Stockholm think tank, said Tesla could “see this little conflict in Sweden as a risk of contagion to other markets.”
In Germany, IG Metall, a union affiliated with Sweden's IF Metall, tried to organize Tesla's factory in Grünheide, outside Berlin.
And in the United States, in the wake of significant gains in wages and benefits achieved by the United Automobile Workers following a six-week strike wave at Detroit's three big automakers, union leaders have set their sights on U.S. workers Tesla, as part of a broader push to organize the automaker's U.S. workers as part of a broader push to organize non-union factories across the United States.
The power of unionized labor in Sweden is considerable. About 70% of the country's workforce belongs to a union, and Swedish law allows solidarity strikes to support the initiatives of other unions.
That's what happened in 1995, when another well-known US company began operating in Sweden. Toys “R” Us was unwilling to accept a collective bargaining agreement, and its retail workers in Sweden went on strike. Although the company employed only 80 people in the country, other unions rallied to their cause, including postal, transport and municipal workers, who disrupted mail delivery and rubbish removal. After three months, the company signed an agreement.
In support of IF Metall, the Swedish Transport Workers Union said that, starting from midday on Tuesday, dock workers will not unload any more Tesla cars.
“When IF Metall asks for transport support, it is important and obvious that we do so, to defend the collective agreement and the Swedish labor market model,” the transport workers union said.
IF Metall has not asked for support from other unions, pending the outcome of Monday's talks, Pettersson said.
Sweden relies on collective agreements between employers and unions within each industrial sector to establish the basic conditions for employment.
WHAT IF METALL ASKS OF TESLA
Under the deal sought by IF Metall, Tesla workers would get a broader insurance package, guaranteed training to move to another job if their job is reduced and annual pay increases, the union said. Even workers who do not belong to a union are covered by collective agreements.
Foreign-based businesses aren't the only ones reluctant to support the country's century-old model of collective bargaining. Some domestic firms, such as buy-now-pay-later giant Klarna and streaming provider Spotify, have pushed back, citing the need to remain flexible and agile in the rapidly evolving tech sector.
After six months of negotiations, two of the unions representing Klarna employees had threatened to walk off the job next week. They managed to secure an agreement for Klarna to join an employers' association late on Friday, thus avoiding a strike, the company said.
(Extract from the eprcommunication press review)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/tesla-sindacato-meccanici-svezia/ on Sun, 12 Nov 2023 06:27:26 +0000.