Strikebreakers arrived by taxi to Tesla's workshops in Sweden
da.se
da.se
> Strike escalated on Monday - "Tesla has brought people here"
> Unknown people in workshop clothes reportedly arrived by taxi on Monday morning at several Tesla workshops, according to picketers around the country.
> - "There are strikebreakers working inside the premises right now," says Carola Andersson, chair of IF Metall in Umeå.
> Around eight o'clock on Monday morning, a taxi arrived at the Tesla car workshop in Umeå, where almost all workers went on strike on Friday. Picketers from the trade union IF Metall noticed four people, dressed in workshop clothes, getting out of the car and entering the workshop.
> - We have at least five strikebreakers here who have come from somewhere else. They are completely new guys who have not been here before. They work with Tesla clothes on inside the workshop. Extensive strikebreaking," he says.
> - "We discovered that overtime was planned for the weekend, so we had picketers there on Saturday and were then told that there was also work on Sunday. We can't know one hundred percent that it was workshop work, but I saw with my own eyes that cars were being driven out of the service doors," says Karl-Henrik Rosberg, IF Metall's ombudsman in Gothenburg.
IF Metall is one of the largest trade unions in Sweden, and the union involved with Tesla right now.
> "If they bring in strikebreakers then that's completely unique," IF Metall's bargaining agreement secretary, Veli-Pekka Säikkälä, told the newspaper. "That would be crossing all boundaries. That kind of thing happened in Sweden in the 1920s and 30s."
> "If they start employing strikebreakers and actively try to break the strike, then they have mobilised the entire union movement against them. Not just the Swedish Trade Union Confederation, but all of them. Then the issue at hand becomes less important."
Because of this, companies generally know that when operating in this part of the world they can't just use strong arm tactics to suppress union activity. It's not even that hard, these unions are not run by stupid people and they are completely capable of negotiating on sensible terms.
So the point of confusion is the seeming asymmetry about what is considered socially normal/acceptable/expected.
I don't know for how long they are striking so far, but I would see it as unbelievable confrontational, a show of force from them to prove that they dictate the terms of employment without negotiations or coming to a compromise. I feel I would not accept that.
Usually it is seen that companies have a responsibility to look after their employees.
Not illegal, but unprecedented. Since the Saltsjöbadsavtalet in 1938, unions, workers and unions have mostly agreed on how to act, Tesla seems to be ignoring history and the country's widespread union participation, thinking they know better than 99% of the country's existing industry.
Does not seem to be exist, so what rights are you referring to?
What they are doing (strikebreaker) is "legal" - but when they are removed from market by the sympathetic population, it will be an obvious outcome.
The surprise is that normally logical employers do not work this way in these countries. However, we've seen that emotional responses are often how Musk's companies operate. I expect it to end poorly for him in this case.
Sweden is not a large market, but events like this contribute to Tesla's reputational decline. The Nordic countries were some of the first and fastest to embrace Tesla. But a brand can be ruined faster than it can be built.
Could it have something to do with the political convictions of the owners?
The “scab” is fine with the current wage.
Scab is definitely a derogatory term for a non union worker.
They’re trying to collectively quit working at the same time (and use government power to force the company not to actually terminate them) as a way of pressuring a company to raise their wages.
It feels like holding a company hostage? Like for instance a protection racket: this feels identical (pay us or you lose your business) is engaging in the same thing, but feels “worse”.
I think the thing that makes this extortion for me is the government involvement. If it was just “we aren’t willing to work for that wage anymore”, that’s just bargaining.
Difficulty: companies, in any legal sense, only exist at the pleasure of the people's government in the first place.
> I think the thing that makes this extortion for me is the government involvement.
Sure, let's get them totally out....
I wasn't aware that "scabs" is more of a derogatory term than "strikebreakers", but then the idea itself for me is derogatory so maybe I'm not the best person to judge.
FWIW: I changed the title to just have "strikebreakers" in it now.
Apparently they mean the same thing though https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strikebreaker
As a point of reference, check out the story on how Toys'R'Us, which had a blanket no union-policy in the 90s, faired against the Swedish unions: https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/what-canada-can-le...
tl;dr: every single Swedish union had their members refuse to interact with the company, leaving them completely blocked out from the Swedish market until they backed off.
I would not be surprised to see a repeat of that story this time around - the unions really don't want to let this become a precedent.
Best case scenario, Musk gets humiliated again.
It really feels to me like "I am sorry about you trying to establish workplace safety standards but we unfortunately follow a global no workplace-safety standards policy and do not agree to minimum workplace safety standards in other parts of the world".
It's gonna be interesting to get some clarity on this topic.
My colleague who is still working says that Tesla is lying today. Half the staff is gone and those who are working are stressing themselves to death. Ingem takes care of the employees. He is going to resign. Mafia methods against those who want to go on strike: giving access cards, keys, etc. Threats and harassment
- Managers have threatened that you will be dismissed if you participate in the conflict. They also have an option program where you get shares for X number of years. They have also threatened to withdraw this if you take part in the conflict as an employee.
A strike is your way of saying, "You need us and we're going to exploit that need to accomplish our goals."
The company bringing in other people who will happily do the work in your place is their way of saying, "I guess we'll see if you're right."
If you play chess, the other player gets moves too.
IF Metall and Tesla will continue negotiations again tomorrow, so maybe Tesla signs a deal before then.
Furthermore, if your customers are also heavily unionised, then they won't want to buy your products.
In that part of the world, the implicit threat of further escalation from the other side.