One 12 months on, we all know this: Sweden’s commerce unions are greater than a match for Elon Musk | German Bender

The US presidential election has not been the one high-stakes date looming for Elon Musk. It has been greater than a 12 months since Swedish employees got here out on strike towards his electrical automotive large Tesla. Swedish industrial union IF Metall has been demanding higher wages, advantages and situations for mechanics in Tesla restore outlets throughout the nation, however basically what’s at stake is the Swedish labour market mannequin of collective bargaining which Musk refuses to recognise.

It’s the first and solely strike towards Tesla wherever on the planet. And it has now turn out to be the longest-running strike in Sweden for a century. In April, six months into the dispute, Musk mentioned: “Really, I believe the storm has handed on that entrance, I believe issues are in moderately good condition in Sweden.” That was not true then, and it isn’t true now.

The previous 12 months has been marked by a wave of solidarity strikes by different unions to dam the delivery of Tesla automobiles to Swedish ports, halt the cleansing of Tesla services, withhold postal deliveries, together with new quantity plates, to all Tesla workplaces and forestall Tesla charging stations being linked to the facility grid. Tesla has repeatedly misplaced authorized battles towards these solidarity strikes, and was just lately forced to pay SEK6.5m (£468,000) in authorized prices to the Swedish postal service, PostNord.

Twelve Swedish commerce unions are concerned and three Nordic ones, together with Norway’s transport union Fellesforbundet and 3F Transport in Denmark. In the meantime, Tesla has introduced in strikebreakers from the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Denmark and plenty of different European international locations to cowl the 52 hanging employees, nearly half of Tesla’s mechanics within the nation.

Whereas authorized underneath Swedish regulation, using strikebreakers is anathema for unions and employers alike in Nordic international locations the place unwritten guidelines and norms are important to their mannequin of employee safety, which rests on collective agreements between employer and staff negotiated through a union. In Sweden, nearly 90% of the workforce is roofed by a collective settlement, throughout all sectors. For Tesla, this appears to be of little concern to its notoriously anti-union CEO.

But the battle has implications far past this northernmost nook of Europe. The United Auto Employees is looking for to organise at Tesla factories within the US and the highly effective German union IG Metall is making an attempt to do the identical in Grünheide, the location of Tesla’s solely European manufacturing unit. As Johan Järvklo, the worldwide secretary of IF Metall, has mentioned: “It’s actually a worldwide battle and Sweden is at present on the forefront.”

From the union perspective, permitting Tesla to get away with out signing an settlement would threat encouraging different employers in Sweden and Europe to do the identical. And from Tesla’s standpoint, there may be the priority that saying sure to collective bargaining in Sweden may very well be used as leverage by unions in different international locations the place Tesla has factories and plenty of extra staff. In Sweden, Tesla solely has dealerships, workplaces, restore outlets and charging stations.

Though Tesla’s apprehension could also be comprehensible, it stems from a restricted understanding of European industrial relations methods. Becoming a member of a union is a elementary proper of all Swedish employees, and nearly half of the corporate’s mechanics in Sweden are union members. Which means that by regulation Tesla has to barter with the union on many points, even when no collective settlement has been signed. IF Metall just lately filed a lawsuit towards Tesla for failing to tell and negotiate with union members over office modifications, in accordance with Swedish labour regulation.

As well as, in some components of Europe, collective bargaining agreements with one firm in an trade or area prolong by regulation to most different corporations in that trade or area. That is the case in Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland and France, the place corporations should adjust to prolonged collective bargaining agreements whether or not they have signed them or not.

And, it seems, Tesla already has collective agreements in Europe. Though representatives of the corporate reportedly acknowledged final 12 months that Tesla “has no collective settlement wherever on the planet”, my analysis has uncovered three native agreements between Tesla France and the biggest union in France CFDT. (They’re registered on Légifrance, the official web site of the French authorities for the publication of authorized paperwork reminiscent of collective agreements.) I consider this new discovery may assist to resolve the Swedish stalemate and forestall disputes in different international locations.

Why? Effectively, since Tesla already has to adjust to sectoral collective agreements in lots of international locations, and even has native agreements in France, it might not be setting a precedent if it did the identical in Sweden. So it ought to begin to see unions as a associate to barter with, somewhat than an enemy.

Even Tesla’s personal world human rights coverage states that “in conformance with native regulation, Tesla respects the best of employees to kind and be a part of commerce unions of their very own selecting … or to kind and be a part of different worker consultant our bodies … to discount collectively”. If the corporate operated within the spirit of this coverage, certainly it needs to be completely capable of adapt to completely different international locations’ laws and norms and forestall this pointless strike in Sweden from persevering with any additional into its second 12 months.

As Esther Lynch, normal secretary of the European TUC, mentioned: “Musk could make up his personal guidelines when he reaches Mars, however if you wish to do enterprise in Europe then you must play by Europe’s guidelines and meaning respecting our custom of collective bargaining.”

• German Bender is chief analyst on the progressive Swedish thinktank Area and a senior analysis affiliate at Harvard Legislation Faculty’s Heart for Labor and a Simply Financial system. His guide on the Swedish Tesla strike might be printed in 2025