Elon Musk Calls Swedish Workers’ Strike Insane As They Take On Tesla

Elon Musk — the founder, chairman, CEO and chief technology officer of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla — has called the Swedish workers’ strike “insane.” 

Tesla workers in Sweden want Tesla to sign an agreement offering the same working conditions and wages to Tesla’s mechanics as those offered to other mechanics at other companies in the country.

The workers’ strike took place at Tesla workshops in Sweden as the workers were calling for collective bargaining rights. 

For the first time, Tesla workers in Sweden went on strike across eight Tesla workplaces in Sweden, demanding collective bargaining agreements.

Tesla Workers Strike In Sweden

On 27 October, Tesla workers walked off the job for the first time to protest against Tesla’s refusal to sign a collective wage agreement. Tesla workers’ strike in Sweden affected around Tesla’s 130 mechanics at eight workshops across Sweden. Members of Sweden’s IF Metall metalworkers’ union held a strike after a failure in negotiations with Tesla over a collective wage agreement. 

IF Metall, which has more than 300,000 members in Swedish industry, said that the strike took place after Tesla refused to sign a collective agreement with its members.

Tesla workers in Sweden said that they had “lower wages” and complained that they do not have the same insurance as other industry workers. They demanded legal wages and a working environment at Tesla companies in Sweden. However, Tesla refused to sign the wage agreement, saying  it never signed collective bargaining agreements anywhere in the world.

What is Collective agreement?

The collective bargaining agreements cover working conditions, including salary, pension, working hours and holidays. The Collective agreement establishes a legal minimum wage for all the workers. 

In Sweden, a collective bargaining agreement is a written agreement on terms of employment between an employer-representative organization or an employer and a union organization. It covers almost 90 per cent of all Swedish employees and guarantees working conditions.

Tesla workers in Sweden are members of IF Metall. Despite being trade union members, the Tesla workers in Sweden cannot benefit from industry-wide collective bargaining agreements.

What did Elon Musk say?

Elon Musk took to social media platform X, previously Twitter, to slam the workers’ strike. Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and chief executive of Tesla, wrote on X, “This is insane.” The tech billionaire was responding to a social media post about strikes by Swedish postal services that prevented license plates reaching new Tesla cars.

Elon Musk must conduct negotiations with Tesla workers in Sweden on a collective agreement.