This is amazing insight from the Union, the last part says it all:
De pratar med varandra – men IF Metalls avtalssekreterare Veli-Pekka Säikkälä vill inte kalla det förhandlingar.
arbetet.se
Conversation between IF Metall and Tesla - "Something serious is happening"
They talk to each other - but IF Metall's contract secretary Veli-Pekka Säikkälä does not want to call it negotiations.
Two months. That's how long the strike among Tesla employees IF Metall members has been going on. The goal is a collective agreement, but the union's contract secretary Veli-Pekka Säikkälä does not want to reveal how things are going with that.
- We have talked to each other. We meet sometimes and we talk on the phone sometimes. Quite natural as the conflict has been going on for two months. The only way to solve this is to talk to each other.
Veli-Pekka Säikkälä does not say when the parties have been in contact. He is also careful to emphasize that there are no negotiations underway.
Why is it so important to emphasize? What exactly is the difference between talking and negotiating?
- The reason I say that is because we are discussing, it is not what you would call regular negotiation.
"Good tone"
Nothing more can be gained from Sweden's currently most attention-grabbing labor market conflict. Well, one thing - that there is a good tone.
You have been involved in many conversations and negotiations. Your long experience should mean that you still have some sense of what is possible, right?
- Yes I have. But I'm not going to tell you that. It would be very stupid to do it in the mass media so the other party could read it.
Will you have to work a lot over Christmas on this question?
- I do not know. There are a lot of journalists calling. But I'm not going to tell you when we'll meet next time and stuff like that.
But is it common practice in conversations like this to take a short Christmas break?
- You can never take breaks when you have a labor market conflict. Then you are on standby. There is something serious going on out there. There are people who go on strike, people who are in blockade, there are companies that lose a lot of money. There is no such thing as "now it's Christmas, now you're free".
Misunderstood voluntariness
Films portraying IF Metall as mafia bosses are currently being spread in social media. Where collective agreements are completely voluntary but where it still goes to hell if the company says no to it.
Veli-Pekka Säikkälä thinks that volunteering is misunderstood.
Of course, it is voluntary to sign a collective agreement. But at the same time, you gain a lot from it, he notes. The parties in the labor market avoid legislation around conditions and a more unstable labor market with more strikes. Employers are given a duty of peace. And at the same time - if you do not have a collective agreement, it is included that the union, under the right conditions, can strike to try to reach an agreement.
- It is also voluntary to get vaccinated. If you do, you may still get sick, but less so. In the same way, if you sign a collective agreement, you will not be exposed to conflict measures, except for the milder sympathy measures.
Is the entire Swedish model at stake because of this?
- If Tesla does not have to have a collective agreement, others will question why they should have it. If they can go to the side, they will have a competitive situation that makes it more beneficial for them than for Bilia and Hedin's car.
So there we have it. The union's actions are like a disease and the collective agreement is a vaccine against it. And it a competitive advantage to not have collective agreement.