In a brand new Tesla, Marcus Weidenlöv and his family vacationed on Öland this summer. But the holiday took an abrupt turn when they were involved in a traffic accident. After an ambulance to the hospital in Kalmar, they managed with minor injuries.
The car was almost completely destroyed and had to be sent to a workshop. After a delay of several months, IF-Metall’s strike came, with all work on his benefit car deferred to the future.
– They started the repair on the car in October, it would take a couple of weeks. A week before the strike, the workshop told us that our car would not be affected, it was basically finished. The day before the strike, we find out that this was not the case, says Marcus Weidenlöv.
Tesla limbo
He has ended up in limbo, where his insurance company refuses to pay if he gets a move to another workshop and where the current workshop is on strike in sympathy with IF-Metall, due to Tesla refusing to sign a collective agreement for its Swedish employees.
– It is always unfortunate when third parties are affected and certainly some who get angry with us. But I think you should direct your anger at Tesla, as soon as they sign this agreement that ensures that their employees get decent conditions, third parties will not be affected, says Veli-Pekka Säikkälä, contract secretary at IF-Metall.
Independent workshop – still affected
Today, Marcus Weidenlöv certainly drives a Tesla again, a rental car paid for by his employer and insurance company. But he is worried about the battery in his old benefit car being damaged. After the hired workshop stopped working on it, it has been exhibited in a tent:
– I have a Tesla brand car, but I have not hired Tesla for any job. We have hired a completely independent workshop that has a collective agreement and my insurance company pays, but we are still affected and I think that is wrong.