Elon Musk’s Tesla In Labor Disputes With Sweden’s Unions

Tesla – an American multinational automotive and clean energy company, which is owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk – is making headlines over labor disputes with Swedish workers and Swedish unions. 

On Thursday night, a Swedish court ruled against Tesla in a labor dispute. A Swedish court ruled that PostNord, a provider of postal services, does not need to deliver license plates to car-maker company Tesla that are being blocked by the postal service’s workers.

Elon Musk’s Tesla In Labor Disputes With Sweden’s Unions

Elon Musk’s Tesla is facing backlash in the Nordic countries from powerful employee unions backing Swedish IF Metall’s mechanics. 

The mechanics working for Tesla in Sweden went on strike on October 27, demanding a collective agreement with the company. 

Tesla workers’ strike affected around Tesla’s 130 mechanics at seven 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. 

Keep Reading

Tesla Announces Wage Increase For German Workers

Tesla Workers Report Robot Injuries, Explosions, At Texas Factory

Tesla workers in Sweden complain of having lower wages and lower pensions than other industry workers. They urged Elon Musk to sign the wage agreement. However, Tesla refused to sign the wage agreement. 

Tesla said it never signed collective bargaining agreements anywhere in the world.

Recently, Finnish transport workers’ union AKT joined the sympathy strike against Tesla. 

The union will prevent the carmaker from importing its vehicles to Sweden unless Elon Musk signs the wage agreement.

What can Elon Musk do?

IF Metall is the first trade union in the world to launch an action against Elon Musk and Tesla for not signing the wage agreement. If no agreement is reached, Tesla vehicles destined to reach Sweden will be blocked in all Finnish ports from December 20.

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

In November, Elon Musk called Swedish workers’ strike insane. Elon Musk took to social media platform X, previously Twitter, to slam the workers’ strike. 

“This is insane,” he said in a comment on X social media on November 23, in response to news on PostNord not delivering license plates to new Tesla cars in Sweden.