Organized labor ranks amongst Elon Musk’s least favourite issues, proper up alongside Wall Road quick sellers and the mainstream media.
The world’s wealthiest man constructed Tesla into the trade’s dominant automaker regardless of what he believes has been fierce opposition from all three. But it’s his steadfast refusal to play ball with commerce unions that’s his greatest headache of late.
Solely weeks after labor chief Shawn Fain threatened to boost working situations at Tesla with the assistance of his United Auto Staff, Sweden’s personal industrial union IF Metall is bringing the corporate’s operations to an entire standstill within the Scandinavian nation.
It’s the primary time that Tesla’s operations have been hit by a strike.
“This is insane,” the entrepreneur grumbled.
Sweden is a significant vacation spot for Tesla automobiles, vying with the Netherlands because the fourth-largest marketplace for electrical automobiles within the European Union after Germany and France. Greater than 90,000 EVs have been bought via October, in keeping with the trade’s own data.
That is insane
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2023
Extra importantly, Sweden punches method above its weight in the case of EV adoption, the place it’s presently the undisputed EU chief.
Almost 39% of all new automobiles bought within the Scandinavian nation are totally electrical, triple the general adoption fee within the EU via the primary ten months. It’s by far the most well-liked powertrain selection amongst Swedes, with typical gasoline-only automobiles solely amounting to 52,000 in the course of the first ten months.
Custom of collective bargaining
Despite the fact that Stockholm enjoys the next per capita variety of tech startups valued at $1 billion-plus in Stockholm than almost anywhere else on the earth, the nation nonetheless has a protracted custom of collective wage bargaining.
Because of this, when Tesla refused to comply with a wage cope with 120 mechanics at seven totally different workshops, IF Metall declared a strike in late October.
This has since spiraled uncontrolled as extra unions have since joined in, together with dockworkers that now refuse to unload imported Tesla automobiles arriving in ports and even employees from the state-owned postal service answerable for delivering license plates.
Within the quick time period, Musk can ill-afford gross sales in a key market to dry up. Buyers have gotten more and more anxious that his firm can’t preserve the breakneck velocity of progress, to which they’ve lengthy develop into accustomed.
However, giving in might have long-term implications as he has so far refused to play ball with unions.
Any compromise in Sweden would possible solely embolden labor leaders within the U.S. and Germany to extend the strain.
Responding to Musk’s frustration, Swedish parliamentarian Annika Strandhäll corrected the centibillionaire.
“This is the Swedish labor market model agreed on since almost a hundred years between employers and employees,” she wrote. “In Sweden all serious companies sign collective agreements.”
