A small conflict between mechanics at Tesla service and repair centers over the employer’s refusal to sign a collective agreement is beginning to develop into a national strike: workers from other industries and fields are joining the protesters.
Tesla Sweden has been refusing to sign a collective agreement with the mechanics of its Swedish service and repair centers for a long time. The conflict grew from year to year.
Patience ran out and led to an expansive strike at the end of October. After years of trying to force Tesla to sign a collective agreement, national union IF Metall has called on mechanics to stop working.. The automaker's service centers have stopped.
This is how unions work
A relatively small group of 130 Tesla mechanics, under the patronage of trade unions, “put the whole country on their ears”. Even postmen and dock workers at the ports began to show solidarity with them.
On the territory of service centers, Tesla owners can come and drive, but they will not receive services there – the teams are on strike. Photo: IF Metall
The Services and Communications Workers' Union (Seko) announced on Monday that it would no longer process the automaker's mail as a sign of solidarity.
As Euronews reports, now the automaker's shipments will remain in warehouses, and service centers will not receive ordered important spare parts necessary for repairs and maintenance.
Swedish dockers did not stand aside either. They announced that they will not unload Tesla cars at several ports. After that didn't work, they blocked all the country's ports from Tesla.
The trade unions there have teeth and know how to organize themselves.. Even cleaners came out to support Tesla mechanics: maintenance workers across the country said they refused to clean Tesla premises.
Trade union IF Metall announced that Hydro Extrusions in Vetlandia has joined the strike. They stopped production of a component for Tesla cars precisely because of solidarity with colleagues and the demand to force the automaker's head office to sign a collective agreement.
They stopped producing kits for Tesla cars as a sign of solidarity with the mechanics of the service and repair centers at the Hydro Extrusions plant, where 50 employees out of 650 of the total workforce work on exactly that process. Photo: IF Metall
Collective agreement – the basis of the basics
IF Metall is ready to negotiate with Tesla Sweden, but they are avoiding business conversations in every possible way. On Tuesday, November 21, at a meeting of the IF Metall Contract Council, all delegations supported Tesla workers by holding specially produced solidarity leaflets.
“This conflict concerns the salaries, pensions and insurance of our employees working at Tesla. But in essence, it is also a defense of the entire Swedish labor market model. In Sweden, unions and employers agree together on wages and working conditions during collective agreement negotiations,” says Marie Nilsson, president of the national union IF Metall.
The Swedish labor market model is one of the best in Europe. Its basis is collective agreements, according to which trade unions and employers determine the rules of the game in the labor market, without the intervention of the state and politicians.
At a meeting of the IF Metall National Contract Council, all those present picked up posters as a sign of solidarity with employees of Tesla service centers. Photo: IF Metall
Union members there pay dues and know what they are paying for: about nine out of ten workers are covered and protected by a collective agreement. If there is no such agreement, then the employee is deprived of many incentives.
Firstly, wages in companies where there is no collective agreement are lower than the average of agreements in the entire auto industry. Secondly, without a collective agreement, annual salary increases are not guaranteed. They also do not have the opportunity to receive a decent pension, do not have fixed working hours, and much more.
There is a possibility that in Sweden a national wave against the Tesla administration could spread to the automaker's plant in Germany, where they are already closely monitoring the course of events in their neighbors. Information also reached the Tesla plant in the USA, where workers are also dissatisfied with working conditions.