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Comment by contrarian1234 | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for the clarification! Super interesting. I'm curious about how it works. Do they have to actually be on strike? B/c it sounds like in this scenario they don't loose/risk anything (wages/employment). Can the employees be fired for not doing their jobs?

Can the police union also refuse to protect Tesla property/workers? Or like the public transit union? Where do they draw the line in Sweden?

I've never heard of a system where workers can so selectively decide who to target. I've only heard of the "not go into work" type of strikes

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Unions can't force their members (or non-members) to strike, except for the fact that if as a member you refuse to join a strike organised by your union you might be expelled. Attempting an individual strike without the backing of a union would leave you no protection from retaliation and would likely get you fired. The unions themselves are relatively limited in how and when they can organise legal strikes.

Employers on their part have access to a similar tool in the form of lockout, where they bar employees from coming into work and stop paying their wages. An employer targeted by (legal) solidarity action can't fire their striking employees, but could respond with a lockout.

There's a provision that disallows strike action where it would harm public order, which would apply to the police union refusing to protect Tesla property.

> Unions can't force their members (or non-members) to strike, except for the fact that if as a member you refuse to join a strike organised by your union you might be expelled.

Unless I am heavily misreading, “we organized a strike, and if you don’t join us, you are expelled from the union” sounds exactly like a union forcing its members to strike.

What other kind of “forced to strike” scenario were you imagining? Union leaders holding those refusing to strike at a gunpoint? Because other than extreme examples like this one, it sounds like a textbook version of forcing members to strike.

Historically it wasn't uncommon to attempt to physically prevent strikebreakers from crossing the picket line.

Most if not all organisations have standards of conduct that they expect their members to follow, and its not surprising that unions view strikebreaking ("scabbing") as being contrary to those standards.

But seeing as the whole point of unions is organised action, why would you want to be a member if you weren't interested in participating in that action?

It's all about protecting the system of collective bargaining that has been a normal feature of Scandinavian labour relations for a century or more. I suspect that the police have duties that override the union but I imagine that they could still have an overtime ban.

No they cannot be fired under this circumstance so long as the right procedures have been followed by the union and its members.

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