Tesla faced unprecedented difficulties in the Nordic region, and after a six week strike by the Swedish union IF Metall, workers from other Nordic countries also began to join in the confrontation with Tesla.
Due to the widespread sympathy among Swedish workers, after the strike by IF Metall Tesla mechanics, groups such as Swedish postal workers, painters, and dockworkers also joined the blockade and refused to provide services to Tesla. After the dock workers stopped unloading Tesla goods, it was suggested that Tesla would seek to unload them at Danish ports and transport them by truck to Sweden.
However, Denmark's largest union announced a sympathy strike on Tuesday. Jan Villadsen, Chairman of the Danish 3F Transport Union, stated that IF Metall and Swedish workers are engaged in an extremely important battle, and therefore the union will support this effort.
He added that 3F will intervene in Tesla's labor struggle with Sweden and exert further pressure on Tesla. He said he hopes Tesla can sit at the negotiating table as soon as possible, and both parties can sign a collective labor agreement.
The intervention of 3F means that Danish dock workers and truck drivers will not receive and transport Tesla cars at the port, which blocks Tesla's path around the strike by Swedish workers.
Ma style and Nordic attitude
At the end of October, 120 Swedish mechanics launched a strike against Tesla, but they did not demand an increase in wages or other benefits, but rather demanded that Tesla comply with the collective bargaining principles of the Nordic labor market. This dispute highlights the clear ideological differences between Tesla and Nordic countries.
Villadsen pointed out that even if Musk is one of the wealthiest people in the world, he cannot just set his own rules and not follow the rules of others. The Nordic region has its own labor market agreements, and if Tesla wants to conduct business, it needs to comply with these agreements.
And the controversy is not only limited to Sweden and Denmark. The Stockholm Nordic Transport Workers Union, Anu Hietala, stated on Tuesday that unions representing Finnish and Norwegian dock workers are also discussing taking action to support Swedish mechanics.
Arena Id é, the head of the survey at the Arena Id é think tank and a Swedish labor market expert, said that this was only a very small conflict in itself, with only about 120 employees directly involved. However, Tesla is a large employer, and the subsequent impact may be much greater than the conflict itself.
He explained that Tesla's failure to sign the agreement does not mean Sweden's collective agreement will collapse, but other employers will begin to question why they signed the agreement, which will shake the entire Swedish labor market system. The rapid decline in the coverage of collective bargaining in Germany over the past decade may be a warning to this event.
On the other hand, this labor capital confrontation has also affected Tesla's investor decisions. On Wednesday, one of Denmark's largest pension funds, the Danish Pension Company, announced that it has decided to liquidate its holdings of Tesla stocks due to Tesla's refusal to reach an agreement with the union.
The pension company stated that due to the conflict spreading to Denmark and Tesla's strong refusal to sign union agreements in any country, the company believes that as an investor, it is difficult to influence the company, so it will include Tesla in the company's investment blacklist.