Elon Musk the world’s richest person attempted to declare Tesla’s dispute with Sweden’s IF Metall union as over was rebuffed by the union this week when it said: “The strike in Sweden is still very much ongoing. Tesla want to give an impression that business is as usual for them” said the union.
Musk was responding to the CEO of Norway’s $1.6 trillion wealth fund, which owns 1% of Tesla’s stock and is its eighth-largest investor, about the dispute in a live nterview on his social media platform X.
Musk who opposed trade unions worldwide said: “I think the storm has passed on that front. I think things are reasonably good in Sweden”.
The dispute is related to a union rights and collective bargaining with Tesla by 120 technicians and has seen massive support across Nordic countries and in Sweden from workers employed in Tesla’s supply chain including postal workers, waste collectors, repair centres, transport and dock workers, electricians, and cleaners who have refused to handle Tesla business, forcing the company to find alternative ways of running its Swedish operations.
Norwegian investment companies have backed a shareholder proposal asking Tesla to adopt a policy on respecting rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.
In December last year some Nordic pension funds and other investors sent a letter to Tesla voicing concern. One fund, PensionDanmark, sold its shares in Tesla over the issue.
The ethics watchdog for four of Sweden’s state pension funds, with a combined Tesla stake worth 314 million euros at end the end of 2023, said this week it has discussed the strike with Tesla.
The head of the AP Funds’ Council on Ethics, Jenny Gustafsson, says it had highlighted to Tesla how the Swedish model of collective bargaining is “well established and has provided stability and predictability in the Swedish labour market”.
Tesla’s Model Y was Sweden’s most sold car in the first quarter of this year but its overall registrations in the country declined 8% year-on-year in the January-March period, data from industry association Mobility Sweden showed.
“They have been forced to change their way of bringing cars into Sweden and Tesla employees have to handle waste and garbage themselves at the workshops,” said Elin Lornbo of the Transport Workers’ Union, which is blocking the company from delivering cars to Sweden by ship.
The transport union has said Tesla is bypassing the blockade by bringing cars in on trucks or by train.