The labor dispute over Tesla’s refusal to sign a collective wage agreement in Sweden has escalated into a dramatic labor battle.

Unions representing multiple industries announced this week that they would join the strike in solidarity with IF Metall, the Tesla mechanics’ trade union.

The standoff started in late October with a walkout led by IF Metall.

In Sweden, which doesn’t have minimum wage legislation for workers, about 90% of employees are covered by collective agreements involving unions and employers.

IF Metall describes the agreements as “the backbone of the Swedish model” and said it’s been trying to negotiate one with Tesla for the last five years.

The union said Tesla wages are below the industry average in Sweden, and it wants to secure better pensions and insurance guarantees.

  • @_number8_
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    -4211 months ago

    something very funny about dockworkers being the holdup here. we need to go back to sea power as might

    • @[email protected]
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      3111 months ago

      Are you suggesting that America use its Navy to enforce, by force, a resolution of the labor dispute in favor of Tesla?

      This isn’t the 1700s, you know.

      • @[email protected]
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        911 months ago

        Well this wouldn’t be the first time America went to war to protect the interests of a company, specifically over a labor dispute.

      • @Kbobabob
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        311 months ago

        I don’t think that is what they are saying…

        • @NocturnalMorning
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          2011 months ago

          Funny, I still don’t know what they’re trying to say though.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 months ago

          They’re saying that dock workers in the modern world don’t hold nearly as much power as they did before the rise of personal automobiles and saying (I’m guessing in jest) that we should go back to that time point.

          • redfellow
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            311 months ago

            Oh they hold enough to stop a business in a country dead on it’s tracks.

            Replacing all deliveries by truck or plane would only work as a stopgap, and bleed all profit margins to hell.

        • @NocturnalMorning
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          111 months ago

          Funny, I still don’t know what they’re trying to say though.