Yoonji Han
Updated Fri, November 24, 2023
Elon Musk called a growing wave of strikes against Tesla in Sweden 'insane.'
The strikes began in late October, when the trade union IF Metall announced a walkout.
The union representing postal service workers have joined in solidarity, meaning no new license plates for Tesla cars.
Elon Musk called a mounting wave of strikes against Tesla in Sweden "insane" as unions continue to pressure the electric carmaker to sign a collective bargaining agreement with its mechanics.
The labor battle began on October 27, when mechanics in the Swedish union IF Metall walked out.
The union is seeking a collective agreement on wages and benefits for the approximately 120 employees who work at Tesla's Swedish service facilities, saying it wants "the same decent and safe working conditions at the members at other similar companies in Sweden."
Eight other unions have since joined the strike in solidarity with IF Metall.
In the latest move, Swedish postal services joined the strikes, dealing what could be a major setback. Their sympathy strike means that new Tesla cars won't receive any license plates — signaling an impending pause on new car registrations in an important market for the company.
"This is insane," Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter, early Thursday.
Earlier in November, dockworkers at dozens of ports in Sweden refused to unload cars from ships, and electricians ceased repair work at Tesla's charging stations. Unions representing cleaners have also stopped work at Tesla facilities.
"It is both important and obvious that we help, to stand up for the collective agreement and the Swedish labor market model," the Swedish Transport Workers' Union, whose members work at the docks, said in a statement.
Tesla is facing pressure from its other factories, too. In Germany, where the automaker produces its Model Y cars at its Berlin gigafactory, where union leaders have sought to organize the roughly 11,500 employees.
Musk gave the Berlin gigafactory workers a 4% pay raise amid the mounting pressures.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Elon Musk brands Sweden’s unions ‘insane’ after strikes cripple Tesla operations—but caving to any demands may open the floodgates in the U.S. and Germany
Christiaan Hetzner
Fri, November 24, 2023
Organized labor ranks among Elon Musk’s least favorite things, right up alongside Wall Street short sellers and the mainstream media.
The world’s wealthiest man built Tesla into the industry’s dominant automaker despite what he believes has been fierce opposition from all three. Yet it is his steadfast refusal to play ball with trade unions that is his biggest headache of late.
Only weeks after labor leader Shawn Fain threatened to raise working conditions at Tesla with the help of his United Auto Workers, Sweden’s own industrial union IF Metall is bringing the company’s operations to a complete standstill in the Scandinavian country.
It’s the first time that Tesla’s operations have been hit by a strike.
“This is insane,” the entrepreneur grumbled.
Sweden is a major destination for Tesla cars, vying with the Netherlands as the fourth-largest market for electric vehicles in the European Union after Germany and France. More than 90,000 EVs have been sold through October, according to the industry's own data.
More importantly, Sweden punches way above its weight when it comes to EV adoption, where it is currently the undisputed EU leader.
Nearly 39% of all new cars sold in the Scandinavian country are fully electric, triple the overall adoption rate in the EU through the first ten months. It is by far the most popular powertrain choice among Swedes, with conventional gasoline-only cars only amounting to 52,000 during the first ten months.
Tradition of collective bargaining
Even though Stockholm enjoys a higher per capita number of tech startups valued at $1 billion-plus in Stockholm than almost anywhere else in the world, the country still has a long tradition of collective wage bargaining.
As a result, when Tesla refused to agree to a wage deal with 120 mechanics at seven different workshops, IF Metall declared a strike in late October.
This has since spiraled out of control as more unions have since joined in, including dockworkers that now refuse to unload imported Tesla cars arriving in ports and even workers from the state-owned postal service responsible for delivering license plates.
In the short term, Musk can ill-afford sales in a key market to dry up. Investors are becoming increasingly anxious that his company cannot maintain the breakneck speed of growth, to which they have long become accustomed.
On the other hand, giving in could have long-term implications as he has thus far refused to play ball with unions.
Any compromise in Sweden would likely only embolden labor leaders in the U.S. and Germany to increase the pressure.
Responding to Musk's frustration, Swedish parliamentarian Annika Strandhäll corrected the centibillionaire.
“This is the Swedish labor market model agreed on since almost a hundred years between employers and employees,” she wrote. “In Sweden all serious companies sign collective agreements.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Elon Musk Calls Swedish Tesla Strikes ‘Insane’ as Impact Spreads
Jonas Ekblom
Thu, November 23, 2023
berg) -- Elon Musk said it’s “insane” how a labor dispute in Sweden affecting seven repair shops has spread to hamper Tesla Inc.’s operations in the largest Nordic country.
Dockworkers, garbage collectors, electricians and postal workers now refuse to do any tasks related to Tesla, after their trade groups stepped in to support the Swedish industrial workers’ union IF Metall that’s been striking since Oct. 27. Nine unions are now part of the blockade on the maker of electric vehicles.
Swedish labor unions have wide-ranging rights, enshrined in law, to join action on behalf of their peers. In contrast, similar moves are tightly regulated or outright banned in several other European countries.
The postal workers’ protest specifically ired Musk. It’s preventing the Swedish Transport Agency from delivering license plates to new Tesla cars as regulations allow no other delivery than by post. That means no new Teslas can be taken into use in Sweden.
The chief executive officer and co-founder of the automaker was made aware of the fact in a post on X, the platform he owns that was previously known as Twitter, prompting his response: “This is insane.”
His intervention underscores how the parties to the dispute are digging in.
As the repair-shop strikes are about to enter their fifth week, negotiations have ground to a halt. The chief mediator between the two parties told Swedish business daily Dagens Industri on Tuesday that Tesla’s subsidiary in Sweden has “zero maneuvering room” to sign any deal with the union, and said it is on “orders straight from Elon Musk.”
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk call Swedish strikes 'insane'
Dockworkers, garbage collectors, electricians and postal workers now refuse to do any tasks related to Tesla, after their trade groups stepped in to support the Swedish industrial workers’ union IF Metall that’s been striking since Oct. 27. Nine unions are now part of the blockade on the maker of electric vehicles.
Swedish labor unions have wide-ranging rights, enshrined in law, to join action on behalf of their peers. In contrast, similar moves are tightly regulated or outright banned in several other European countries.
The postal workers’ protest specifically ired Musk. It’s preventing the Swedish Transport Agency from delivering license plates to new Tesla cars as regulations allow no other delivery than by post. That means no new Teslas can be taken into use in Sweden.
The chief executive officer and co-founder of the automaker was made aware of the fact in a post on X, the platform he owns that was previously known as Twitter, prompting his response: “This is insane.”
His intervention underscores how the parties to the dispute are digging in.
As the repair-shop strikes are about to enter their fifth week, negotiations have ground to a halt. The chief mediator between the two parties told Swedish business daily Dagens Industri on Tuesday that Tesla’s subsidiary in Sweden has “zero maneuvering room” to sign any deal with the union, and said it is on “orders straight from Elon Musk.”
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk call Swedish strikes 'insane'
Brad Smith and Eyek Ntekim
Fri, November 24, 2023
Tesla CEO Elon Musk (TSLA) says it is "insane" how a strike that started with seven repair shops has started to spread in the country, with postal workers now refusing to deliver to Tesla offices. This strike is on the heels of discussion by UAW President Shawn Fain to target Tesla next. Yahoo Finance’s Seana Smith and Brad Smith report on this story and the ripple effects this strike will have throughout Europe.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Video Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
BRAD SMITH: Keeping an eye on Tesla this morning. The company dealing with an escalating strike by a group of Swedish unions with Elon Musk branding the fallout as quote, "insane." This comes amid mounting pressures on the EV maker as it faces a pricing war with EV competitor, shares moving higher by about 7/10 of a percent. You know, I think for Tesla, this is not perhaps the best time for any news around a strike to really ensue, especially considering the fact that they are in the sight not just of some of the labor regulators that are overseas, but also here in the US as well, as that is the UAW's next target as Shawn Fein talked about.
SEANA SMITH: Yeah, certainly. We know that Tesla has been facing some pressure here just in terms of their workforce. And what we could exactly see play out here over the coming months, given the UAW strike and how effective many, I think, would say that they were in terms of reaching more favorable pay benefits for what the union was pushing for in terms of what the strike means for Tesla.
So the strike in Sweden, right now it affects seven repair shops. With this expansion, with postal workers now involved, dock workers, the list goes on, it now totals about nine unions are part of the strike on Tesla. So it has started affecting Tesla operations within Sweden.
We did hear from Elon Musk. He weighed in on X about this strike, calling it insane. Obviously, he's not happy with exactly what this means for Tesla over in Sweden and more specifically with the post workers now being part of the strike. It has now prevented a Swedish transport agency from delivering license plates to new Tesla cars, which means that then Tesla cannot deliver the vehicles. So obviously, having a real impact there.
And this comes at a time when Tesla has been under a tremendous amount of pressure. We talk about the number of price cuts that have already taken place, the pressure that that has placed on margins. Yes, in some way, it has been a boost for demand, which many analysts, I think, would agree is short-term pain for long-term gain. But that short-term pain, especially when you're facing work stoppage or any sort of pushback here from union workers overseas, the potential that could then trickle here into the US is just another headwind that Musk needs to keep on his radar.
BRAD SMITH: Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the other things to track continuously with this as well is where this perhaps permeates into other areas in Europe. Particularly, I think about that Berlin-Brandenburg factory that is the first Gigafactory that they brought online in Europe. And they really prioritized manufacturing hundreds of thousands of Model Y vehicles and their battery cells there. And that is going to be a huge footprint in order for them to be able to deliver into other parts of the European region and member countries.
Now, all of that said, we've been in the midst of the year of some of the most tense labor negotiations across health care, across entertainment, and across autos as well. And that's why for Tesla to continue to be within this conversation or at least in the orbit of this conversation could spell out something that investors have to watch as it could impact the margins even as they have been-- well, imploring or I should say just rolling out a lot of those different pricing options and cutting the prices in order to make sure that more sales are done in this interim period of time. But those sales could come at a risk, especially if you do see successful labor negotiations and strikes move forward, which then move higher some of the costs to produce and then ultimately impacts the margins that they're able to see at the end for each vehicle sold as well.
SEANA SMITH: All right, we will see. Tesla certainly has been one of the winners this year. But it has been under some pressure here as we take into account all the pressure that margins have been under--
BRAD SMITH: Yeah.
SEANA SMITH: --because of the price cuts that we've seen play out.
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