At the end of last month, Tesla's maintenance mechanics in Sweden began a strike to force Tesla to accept a collective labor agreement. Now, this strike farce seems to be intensifying in this Scandinavian country. The latest news shows that workers from a local supplier at Tesla will also hold a strike next week.
Tesla does not have a production factory in Sweden, but its electric vehicles have repair operations in repair workshops across Sweden. Previously, approximately 130 mechanics engaged in Tesla maintenance services under the Swedish union IF Metall announced a strike on October 27th, demanding that Tesla negotiate a collective agreement.
According to IF Metall's disclosure of seeking an agreement with Tesla, these workers are requesting a wider range of insurance plans to ensure that they receive necessary training to transition to another job in the event of layoffs, and receive an annual salary increase. Even workers who do not belong to the union can be protected by collective agreements.
Soon thereafter, dock workers and car dealers also responded and supported the actions of the mechanics, refusing to handle Tesla products. Port workers from Sweden's four largest ports announced in early November that they will stop unloading Tesla cars in support of the strikers.
And this week, the pressure Tesla faces in its local business has been further amplified
A spokesperson for Hydro Extrusions, a subsidiary of Norwegian aluminum and energy company Hydro, said that the company's approximately 50 union workers will stop production of Tesla automotive products next Friday. The spokesperson added that other businesses of the factory located in Vetlanda will continue to operate.
Hydro Extrusions' Witlanda factory produces aluminum profiles - processing aluminum alloys into various shapes. This is also the first Tesla supplier in Sweden to shut down in support of a mechanical strike.
However, it is still unclear whether Tesla will make a compromise under pressure at the moment. IF Metall previously stated that Tesla had informed the union on November 6th that it did not want to sign a collective agreement.
We hope that Tesla, Sweden, will sign a collective agreement, and we hope that this conflict will be as short as possible, "said IF Metal spokesperson Jesper Pettersson.
According to data from the World Resources Research Institute, although Sweden has a relatively small land area, its electric vehicle sales account for up to 32%, ranking third in the world after Norway and Iceland.
Sweden is also Tesla's fifth largest market in Europe, with a total of 16309 new cars registered in the first nine months of this year. The SUV model Model Y produced by Tesla at its German factory has always been the best-selling electric vehicle in Sweden this year.
It is worth mentioning that after the Swedish machinist strike, the German union has also put pressure on Tesla to sign similar agreements for the 11000 workers at the Gruheid factory in Berlin. Earlier this month, Tesla increased the wages of employees at the factory by 4%, but IG Metall, the largest union in Germany, claimed that wages were still about 20% lower than those stipulated in collective agreements.