The delicious irony here is that U.S. corporations want the government out of regulating worker rights and company obligations, and having actually encountered that, Tesla said, “no, we don’t like how that turned out, either.”
Three days later, on November 20, the Seko union, which represents postal workers, will stop delivering letters, spare parts, and pallets to all of Tesla’s addresses in Sweden.
It seems troubling that there aren’t regulations in place requiring postal workers to deliver mail indiscriminately.
What if the postal union decided not to deliver mail-in ballots they thought might support a policy they disagreed with, for example?
Hi, can you clarify what you mean or provide a source? I’m not away of any widespread examples of this but it could be that I’m misunderstanding or misremembering.
Louis DeJoy, the U.S. Postmaster General who was installed by Trump in May 2020, spent the months prior to the November elections undermining voting by mail and sabotaging the Postal Service. There were multiple lawsuits about it.
The Trump government shut down automated mail sorting machines, cut overtime for workers (so if they weren’t keeping up with the workload, they’d just stop delivering mail instead of working a longer shift), replaced a bunch of air mail delivery routes with road ones, added delays to re-delivery attempts when a letter couldn’t be delivered and removed mail collection boxes.
Supposedly all of this would “improve the efficiency” of the postal service. Yeah right.
Sweden doesn’t have laws that set working conditions, such as a minimum wage. Instead these rules are dictated by collective agreements, a type of contract that defines the benefits employees are entitled to, such as wages and working hours. For five years, industrial workers’ union IF Metall, which represents Tesla mechanics, has been trying to persuade the company to sign a collective agreement. When Tesla refused, the mechanics decided to strike at the end of October. Then they asked fellow Swedish unions to join them.
This is actually a pretty nice system. It works like a protection for all workers, that their salaries are set by the union and it can’t be changed by the company.
Of course Tesla doesn’t like that, and of course capitalism in general hates that, because how are you going to replace then with cheaper workers? Or fire them when they feel like it (this is also regulated by the unions).
Capitalism is at its core about exploiting humans, and specially humans that are weak and not able to compete in the capitalism class system. It’s company profits over humanity.
I resisted the urge to make a comment about it because honestly, sometimes I’ve been guilty of it, too. Also, some articles are so full of useless, unnecessary bullshit I can’t really blame people for not wanting to read them. So I just copied, pasted, and shut up. :)
This isn’t even aggressive, they’re literally showing they won’t work for the company if the company isn’t willing to work for them. All the unions in the US have to play politics with the government and corporations in order to keep things flowing smoothly, one false move and the corporations have the upper hand. With that kind of advantage, it’s the corporations who are aggressive here.
I’ll never understand how the railroad workers union was only allowed to strike on a specific day for a specific time and then were forced to go back to work. Apparently they are labeled “critical” for the nation and then can’t strike??
Like, uh, that’s literally the point of the strike. Highlighting how critical they are and that you should give them the meager asks they wanted. If some low-wage earners can shut down the entire country because they are upset about earning peanuts - well then maybe it shows they shouldn’t be earning peanuts.
Just watched on tv a documentary about strikes a hundred years ago in the US. Facing the Rockefellers, Carnegies and alike. Police was shooting them down. That’s the US. Railroaders are on strike just today in Germany.
Important to note that this is a workaround. Solidarity strikes (which normally include general strikes) are illegal, but there’s no law that prevents every union from happening to strike on their own behalf at the same time.
American unions are kneecapped by the government. The 1947 Taft-Hartley Act made solidarity strikes (and several other forms of labor protest) illegal. It also opened the door for states to enact “right-to-work” laws.
This law is still standing in part because US courts have been anti-labor for their entire existence, aside from a brief period during FDR’s administration.
a TINY little fact check would be advisable here. Because: Tesla mechanics did NOT start a strike. It was announced by a lobby group, but none of them went to strike, as they claimed they were content with their conditions, got paid decently and therefore saw no reason to go on strike.
The much I welcome workers fighting for their rights, the current situation looks a LOT like a union trying to mobilize as many of their members as possible to prove they’re relevant - by choosing a high profile target as victim. Actions like these don’t benefit the workers at all. It only strengthens the union and those in charge in it. In the end, it’ll be the workers who will have to suffer, as Tesla will probably switch to similar anti-worker-measures like many other car manufacturers already use them already
This is completely wrong and a complete misinterpretation of the situation. Tesla is breaking the law in Sweden by not having a group contact with the workers, and a strike is precisely what the law allows as remedy.
Tesla was not picked on because they’re high profile, they were chosen because they’re one of the few companies clueless enough to open a factory in Sweden without a group contract.
The only amazing thing is how the hell did they manage to function for five years without it.
Minor caveat - Tesla doesn’t have a factory in Sweden, their presence is in the form of stores, mechanics and service staff for superchargers (and maybe something else I’m not aware of)
Not a fan of Tesla, but they’re not breaking any laws here.
There is an agreement between the employer organisation and the unions on how to deal with things in order to keep the government out of it. It’s called “The Swedish model”. This is what Tesla doesn’t want to sign up to.
IF Metall tried to get Tesla to the table to talk for five years, unsuccessfully, so here we are. Nobody wants the strike, but what can you do?
Just adding in: The Swedish modell is the reason there is no minimum wage in Sweden. It’s expected that the employer and employee organisations negotiate the terms.
An employer who tries to avoid such negotiations is in fact getting unfair competitive advantage.
This is not just about people getting a fair wage. It’s about not letting Tesla cheat.
True, I should have said that it breaks established procedure rather than the law. But they’re walking on thin ice because union collusion as a response is legal.
I still can’t wrap my head around the fact they walked in knowing this will happen, and I wonder what their long term plan was.
May I ask, are the jobs at Tesla particularly interesting or well-paid? Why don’t the people simply walk away from an employer who won’t sign a collective agreement? Is it a cultural thing to strike rather than walk?
This is not true. IF Metall, the union representing the mechanics, have been trying to negotiate with Tesla for many years on behalf of their members. Unions don’t go on strike for members that are not interested in getting a deal.
The reason this conflict has escalated is because of Tesla being unwilling to come to the negotiating table, and as such, other unions are arranging sympathy strikes as a measure to have Tesla come to the table.
The American form of freedom, commonly known as “liberty”, does not include labour solidarity, but is defined more narrowly as the right for the powerful to exercise their power without any do-gooder stopping them.
Yes, but sometimes the picket lines of other unions are “threats to health and safety”. Sorry boss, I felt unsafe getting to the job site. Especially if you do it as a group, you have the right to concerted activity to protect your health and safety.
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