SWEDISH UNIONS BLOCKADE TESLA

Some Swedish unions are pressuring Tesla to sign a collective bargaining agreement.

BERLIN: Electricians and dockworkers across Sweden on Friday joined a widening effort by unions in the country to pressure Tesla to sign a collective bargaining agreement with its mechanics.

The labour action expanded three weeks after the autoworkers union, IF Metall, called a strike against Tesla in an effort to secure a collective arrangement over pay and working conditions for its roughly 120 members who work as mechanics for the electric vehicle maker. In the latest move, dockworkers at dozens of ports refused to unload cars from ships and electricians stopped repair work at the company’s charging stations, highlighting the power of organised labour in a country where collective agreements cover 9 in 10 of all employees.

Tesla does not produce any vehicles in Sweden, but runs several facilities where the cars are serviced. So far this year, the Tesla Model Y is the bestselling new car in Sweden, with more than 14,000 registrations through October, according to Mobility Sweden, an industry group.

At the outset of the mechanics’ strike, a Tesla representative told Swedish media that the company followed labour laws in the country, and that it chose not to sign a collective agreement. The company said it would do what it could to keep its business operating.

The Swedish Transport Workers Union, whose members work at Sweden’s docks, said in a statement that “it is both important and obvious that we help, to stand up for the collective agreement and the Swedish labour market model.”

HOW IT STARTED

In late October, IF Metall, which represents 300,000 workers in Sweden, including some of Tesla’s mechanics, said talks with company representatives had ended without resolution. The union began the strike action at Tesla’s 12 service centres on Oct 27.

Dockworkers initially refused to unload any Teslas at four major Swedish ports starting on Nov 7, which Friday expanded to 55 ports.

Unions representing cleaners have also refused to service Tesla facilities, and the postal workers union stopped any deliveries from reaching the company’s sites.

Both IF Metall and the Transport Workers Union have acknowledged that Tesla has found ways around the strikes. Tesla appeared to be bringing in other mechanics to staff its facilities and bringing new vehicles into Sweden by truck, they said.

The strike efforts have also been hampered by some union members who work for Tesla and refused to join, Swedish media have reported.

In Germany, where Tesla produces the Model Y at a gigafactory outside Berlin, union leaders have been seeking to organise the roughly 11,500 employees who work there. Tesla’s leadership has not engaged with the German autoworkers union, IG Metall. Last month, several hundred workers wore union stickers calling for “safe and fair work.”

Dirk Schulze, regional head of IG Metall in Brandenburg, where Tesla has its factory, has expressed his solidarity with the striking workers in Sweden. The strike in Sweden has given workers in Germany “the courage and confidence to organise themselves into a union and take their fate into their own hands,” Schulze said in a statement.

The union has not announced any further measures.

IF Metall said 50 of its members at Hydro Extrusions, a company that produces an aluminum component for Tesla, would walk off their jobs this Friday.