They stood up to Elon Musk, the whole country stood behind them. What they did, the billionaire called “madness”

The IF Metall union stated that this is the biggest “battle” in decades and is fighting to preserve the Swedish trade union model and protect it against the use of global labor practices in the country – This is the first time that Tesla employees in Sweden are on strike.

Elon Musk thinks the strike is crazy

started on October 27 in four Swedish ports. Today it has covered all of them. Employees from other organizations and companies also joined the striking Tesla mechanics. The Swedish Transport Workers’ Union and port workers block all Tesla vehicles, both unloading and loading. In turn, postal workers refuse to deliver license plates to electricians. The Swedish Union of Building Maintenance Workers has refused to clean up Tesla shopping and service centers across the country.

– This is crazy – this is how Elon Musk commented on the post summarizing the strikes in Sweden on X.

IF Metall has already announced that it will go on strike as long as necessary. The union brings together 300,000 people. employees of Swedish industry. According to its representatives, the action was taken after the company refused to sign a collective agreement with its employees.

Trade unions in Sweden are powerful

In Sweden, as part of collective agreements, employers determine the amount of salary, pension, working hours and holidays in the contract. Thanks to this, not only employers, but also employees have an influence on the labor market in this country. And even though the number of people associated in unions has been decreasing for years, it is still 90 percent. employees there are covered by collective agreements.

Scandinavia is generally highly unionized. And so much so that strikes at Tesla were triggered not only by national trade unions. Fellesförbundet (United Federation of Trade Unions) also expressed readiness for solidarity activities. This means that Tesla may soon also have problems in Norway. IF Metall says it is well prepared for the strike, but Musk’s company unit is not in any talks with them. Union representatives informed that they were willing to start negotiations.

The actions of Swedish trade unionists perfectly demonstrate that pressure makes sense. Because although Tesla has not yet been forced to sign a collective agreement, Klarna has done so. The Swedish payments company was also threatened with a strike. Klarna’s president and founder, Pole Sebastian Siemiątkowski, even stated after signing the collective agreement that he was convinced that everyone would benefit from this agreement and that his company could contribute to strengthening the Swedish model from the inside.