In October, it has been a year since IF Metall launched its strike against electric car giant Tesla's operations in Sweden. Shortly afterwards, large parts of the LO family's unions joined in sympathy actions, all to disrupt Tesla's operations.
The union's demands: Collective agreement. Tesla says no. And that's where they still stand, in completely locked positions, and from the outside, very little has happened.
IF Metall has had a hard time getting a comprehensive strike going. Otherwise, the American car giant would have been forced to give in a long time ago. Many, a clear majority, of the employees have rejected the union and therefore worked as usual.
Turning point in the summer
But now things have started to turn.
During the summer, we've seen a large influx of new members at Tesla's various facilities in Sweden. And that's been very positive, says Simon Petersson.
According to him, the number has increased by 20 percent to now 50 members.
That means we've reached over 50 percent, says Simon Petersson.
That more people are laying down their work increases the pressure on Tesla, Simon Petersson is convinced, even though the company continues to fly in personnel from abroad, something the union calls strike-breaking.
This increase in the number of members means an even greater pressure on TM Sweden's (Tesla in Sweden) facilities. It's more people on strike. It's getting harder to operate, he says.
Hard to determine
But, as said, nothing has happened yet. Tesla is still managing to get cars into Sweden by truck since the harbors were blocked by the unions in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark. It's hard to say whether the company's sales of new cars have been affected by the conflict. Tesla is maintaining its market share of electric cars in Sweden, on a market that has been generally declining over the past year.
Simon Petersson doesn't want to go into how much, how, and when he talks to TM Sweden's management to find a solution to the conflict. But it's not dead, he says.
In just over two months, the strike will have been going on for a year. Will you still be holding out then?
It's our hope that it won't. But then we'll have resolved these issues. But we're ready if it takes longer than a year.
How much is this costing Metall's strike fund?
We're just scraping the surface of it right now. So it's no problem at all, actually, says Simon Petersson.
IF Metall launched the strike against Tesla's service facilities in Sweden on October 27, 2023.
The union's demands are collective agreements for its members. Tesla says no.
Besides IF Metall's primary conflict, several other LO unions have launched sympathy strikes, which, among other things, mean that Transport and its sister organizations in neighboring countries have stopped all unloading of Tesla cars in harbors.
Pickup is blocked, service of charging stations and workshop equipment as well, as is the postal delivery of registration plates from the Transport Agency, to name a few of the industrial actions.
