Tesla employees strike and protest, Elon Musk also adds fuel to the fire, publicly calling him ‘crazy’

Elon Musk started a war with Tesla employees in Sweden.

BI newspaper reported that Elon Musk is waging war with a group of Swedish workers. This billionaire’s electric car company Tesla is facing a wave of strikes nationwide.

It all started at the end of October when the IF Metall union announced a strike in Sweden. Since then, several other unions, including labor groups in neighboring Denmark, Norway and Finland, have also joined.

Workers in Sweden want to reach a collective bargaining agreement on Tesla, something that is popular in the country.

“The scope of collective bargaining agreements in Sweden is extremely high,” said Lars Calmfors, professor of international economics at Stockholm University. If you look at the entire economy, somewhere around 85% of all employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements.”

There is no legal minimum wage in Sweden, which instead relies on collective bargaining agreements to ensure fair wages.

The relationship between domestic unions and businesses is also relatively harmonious.

“There is a strong tradition of cooperation between unions and employers in all Nordic countries. But the culture of cooperation is particularly strong in Sweden which keeps the level of industrial conflict very low,” Calmfors said.

American companies must play by Swedish rules

The situation Tesla finds itself in is not unprecedented.

“International corporations often have their own compensation and pension systems and they all conflict with the system we have in Sweden,” Calmfors said.

The US company Toys R Us faced a similar situation when it refused to grant workers a collective bargaining agreement in the 1990s. After a three-month strike, the toy company reached an agreement with the Swedish retail store employees’ union and they essentially gave in.

Coordinated strikes have caused headaches for Tesla’s operations in the country.

The Swedish postal service successfully halted the delivery of new license plates for electric vehicles, while Danish dock workers refused to unload Tesla cars.

However, Musk added fuel to the fire when he publicly criticized workers, calling the strikes “crazy.”

Tesla could lose a lot

Tesla’s strike in Sweden is a relatively small one. The electric vehicle company has no factories in the country and only employs about 120 people at service facilities in Sweden.

The market is not particularly important to Tesla, but giving in to the strikes in Sweden could cost the company more in terms of reputation.

“Tesla does not have a collective bargaining agreement anywhere – at least not a voluntary agreement,” Calmfors said. “If they join a collective bargaining agreement in Sweden, it will show workers in other countries that this red line is not absolute.

“What they are concerned about is not the consequences of the collective bargaining agreement in Sweden but that it might give a boost to unions in other countries.”

“But Tesla is facing a formidable opponent in the Nordic country,” Calmfors said.

“Unions fear this could happen in the long run,” he said. If people accept that large companies in Sweden may not have collective bargaining agreements, I think they are concerned that this strong social norm will weaken over time.”

Striking workers are partly funded by unions, he said, which gives additional incentive to strike.

“It’s a big thing for both Tesla and the Swedish unions,” he said. But I think the most likely outcome is that Tesla will lose.”