Tesla has filed a lawsuit against the Swedish state via Sweden’s Transport Agency after striking postal workers in the Scandinavian country stopped delivering license plates for new vehicles manufactured by the Texas-based automaker
The government, not the union, signed a contract that prevents the license plates from being handled in any other way.
There’s no contract, that’s just how license plates are distributed here. The government isn’t blocking Tesla, nor have they ordered anything that blocks Tesla. This is just the consequences of their actions; they tried to fuck with the way our labour market works, and now workers refuse to provide them with labour. It really is that simple.
What you’re saying is that the government makes some sort of legal exception to procedure specifically for Tesla. Why? Last I checked Tesla wasn’t the king of Sweden or any other organ that gets special legal treatment.
Yeah, again this applies to everyone. It’s not a contract between Tesla and the government, it’s standard procedure; official post goes through the state post carrier.
The government is obligated to issue and have the license plate delivered. They have met the obligation of issuing it, that isn’t in question.
The government then has a contract with PostNord to deliver the plates, and the contract says it must be delivered, and cannot be picked up in person.
Tesla is going to argue that this restriction preventing pick up in person isn’t lawful.
They aren’t asking for special treatment saying ONLY Tesla should be able to pick the plates up in person, they are asking for the same treatment for everyone. That everyone should be able to pick them up in person, at least in a situation like this.
And again - the judges have already agreed there is merit to their argument and allowed Tesla to pick up the plates in person, and have imposed a fine if they are prevented.
Another rationale if I understand this properly (and I might not, so the below might be wrong)
My knowledge of the whole force majeure side of the strikes is pretty bare, but my understanding is the strikes are being treated as force majeure. The government also needs to be able to function if a force majeure event occurs. In this case, the government is unable to meet its obligation to have plates delivered in the event of a force majeure, which doesn’t have to be a strike, it could be other things that impact the postal service to. So it’s possible that this contract needs to be ammended to account for force majeure
A democratically elected government signed an exclusive contract with a private company. This worked just fine for years.
But now a foreign company wants the democratically elected government to make an exception for them, so they can circumvent labour unions and undermine the labour rights enacted by a democratically elected parliament.
Ignoring the legal merits of this particular case, it’s bad PR and very bad politics.
Don’t be too surprised if, over the coming months and years, Tesla and Musk’s troubles with authorities and unions across the EU keep mounting up and that suddenly no one cares to give them the benefit of the doubt or interpret the rules anything but strictly.
There’s no contract, that’s just how license plates are distributed here. The government isn’t blocking Tesla, nor have they ordered anything that blocks Tesla. This is just the consequences of their actions; they tried to fuck with the way our labour market works, and now workers refuse to provide them with labour. It really is that simple.
What you’re saying is that the government makes some sort of legal exception to procedure specifically for Tesla. Why? Last I checked Tesla wasn’t the king of Sweden or any other organ that gets special legal treatment.
They made this bed.
There is a contract that states only this one service can deliver the license plates (edit: and can’t be delivered any other way)
That contract is the problem.
Yeah, again this applies to everyone. It’s not a contract between Tesla and the government, it’s standard procedure; official post goes through the state post carrier.
Why does Tesla deserve special treatment?
The government is obligated to issue and have the license plate delivered. They have met the obligation of issuing it, that isn’t in question.
The government then has a contract with PostNord to deliver the plates, and the contract says it must be delivered, and cannot be picked up in person.
Tesla is going to argue that this restriction preventing pick up in person isn’t lawful.
They aren’t asking for special treatment saying ONLY Tesla should be able to pick the plates up in person, they are asking for the same treatment for everyone. That everyone should be able to pick them up in person, at least in a situation like this.
And again - the judges have already agreed there is merit to their argument and allowed Tesla to pick up the plates in person, and have imposed a fine if they are prevented.
Another rationale if I understand this properly (and I might not, so the below might be wrong)
My knowledge of the whole force majeure side of the strikes is pretty bare, but my understanding is the strikes are being treated as force majeure. The government also needs to be able to function if a force majeure event occurs. In this case, the government is unable to meet its obligation to have plates delivered in the event of a force majeure, which doesn’t have to be a strike, it could be other things that impact the postal service to. So it’s possible that this contract needs to be ammended to account for force majeure
A democratically elected government signed an exclusive contract with a private company. This worked just fine for years.
But now a foreign company wants the democratically elected government to make an exception for them, so they can circumvent labour unions and undermine the labour rights enacted by a democratically elected parliament.
Ignoring the legal merits of this particular case, it’s bad PR and very bad politics.
Don’t be too surprised if, over the coming months and years, Tesla and Musk’s troubles with authorities and unions across the EU keep mounting up and that suddenly no one cares to give them the benefit of the doubt or interpret the rules anything but strictly.
I think “bad PR” is a massive understatement there.