In Sweden, the installers belonging to the metal union of the American car manufacturer Tesla’s workshops have been on strike for six weeks now, and there is no end in sight to the labor dispute.
The Swedish Metals Association ie If Metallin Veli-Pekka at Säikkälä is a modest-sounding title, contract secretary (förhandlingssekreterare). Actually, he is the head chosen by the union meeting of the metal union, who is number one on the employee side in the currently ongoing labor dispute with TM Sweden, the Swedish subsidiary of the American car manufacturer Tesla.
Säikkälä moved to Sweden when he was 2 years old and speaks good Finnish.
Everything related to Tesla is subject to the support measures of ay unions
The installers belonging to Metalliitto went on strike at Tesla workshops six weeks ago, on October 27. According to Säikkälä, there are only 120 metal union installers at the heart of the labor dispute, but the strike has reached extraordinary proportions in Sweden. Nine other unions have gone on support strikes, meaning their members will not touch anything related to Tesla. That’s why Teslas are not repaired, they are not repainted and Teslas are not given mail.
Until the court case, a support measure has spawned, as a result of which the buyer of a new Tesla does not get a license plate. Tesla has interpreted this as interference by the Swedish state in a labor dispute, and the matter is being investigated. The interim decisions have been negative for Tesla and the license plates are not moving for the time being.
Yesterday, the Finnish automotive and transport industry employee union AKT announced its own support measures. From the beginning of the week, the same news was heard from Norway and Denmark.
According to Säikkälä, the support of neighboring countries is important, because the metal union suspects that in addition to goods, Tesla might also start moving installers from neighboring countries.
– The support measures are important because Tesla is now doing something that was last done in Sweden in the 1920s and 30s. It organizes strikers and recruits workers from abroad to do the work of our workers. That’s why this head strike doesn’t bite so well, and such sympathy barriers are needed.
According to Säikkälä, new support action requests are never announced in advance, so that the information would not give the employer additional time. In Finland, the chairman is responsible for the Swedish Metal Association Riku Aalton led by the Industry Association.
A principle that Elon Musk wants to break
In Sweden, there is no general commitment like in Finland, but trade unions make contracts directly with companies. Säikkälä says that, for example, his union agrees a couple of hundred collective agreements every year. If the company belongs to an employer’s association, the employees are automatically covered by the industry’s collective agreement.
American Elon Musk most obviously overlooks all organization. If Tesla’s Swedish subsidiary were to join the employers’ organization, the current labor dispute would be resolved right away. Tesla has not entered into collective agreements with trade unions anywhere in the world.
However, according to Säikkälä, the world’s richest man is now in a labor dispute with the world’s strongest ay union. Swedish metal is not going to give up until the workers have a collective agreement agreed by the union.
Säikkälä describes the collective agreements as the Swedish model, where there are no minimum wages and no general commitment, but the employee unionization rate is 90 percent.
In Finland, the Swedish model has been admired precisely because, for example, there are clearly fewer strikes than in Finland.
In the current model, Tesla employees each sign their own employment contract, and according to Säikkälä, they have longer working hours, lower average wages and less money set aside for pensions and insurance than in the union’s collective agreement.
– We cannot allow such a big player as Tesla to exist without a collective agreement. And the other thing is, of course, the employees who are at Tesla. Today, they do not have as good working conditions as the employees who are at other car workshops.
According to Säikkälä, 60 percent of Tesla’s installers belong to the metal union.
According to critics, Metalliliitto has now pushed the labor dispute so hard that it will drive Tesla out of Sweden. Säikkälä doesn’t believe that for a second, because according to him, there are already 50,000 Tesla electric cars on Swedish roads.
There are some similar labor disputes from past decades. For example, an American Toys R us strike ended in the 1990s with the victory of the trade union, i.e. the parties signed a collective agreement.