Tesla Unionization

[UkNorthampton]

The Union doesn't give up, even though it is now very clear that a majority of the Tesla workers does not strike. Now another sympathy measure is on its way, which aim to prevent Tesla chargers of being installed or serviced. In my opinion, the unions are not doing themselves any favors by their actions.

Seko stoppar service av Teslas laddstationer

– IF Metalls kamp är även vår kamp. Genom att vägra förhålla sig till spelreglerna här i Sverige så försöker..

www.realtid.se

It's obvious that tesla will grow massively in terms of Superchargers in Sweden.

Any company that loses today's Tesla business is forfeiting a huge potential.

Employees may realise this, Tesla may be a significant reason for their employment today.

This could be the daftest idea so far in fighting Tesla. Possibility of companies and employees deciding to go against this action or strengthens competitors as Tesla switches.

I note that non commercial staff (muninipal) are also included. Even if Tesla are affected, so are striking companies and employees.

 

[heltok]

Paywall: IF Metalls Marie Nilsson: ”Jag vill ju bara förhandla, men hur sjutton ska en amerikan kunna fatta det?!”
No Paywall: https://archive.is/j8Kon#selection-1389.0-1389.105

Mod: if it is behind a paywall, it is copyright. It is against the law, and the TMC terms of service, to post entire copyrighted articles. We have to remind people of this occasionally. It wouldn't surprise me if there have been other violations that just weren't quite so obvious to me. Please don't do this again. --ggr

 

[2daMoon]

Tesla Sweden stays firm amid IF Metall strike

Tesla Sweden is staying firm against collective agreements amid IF Metall’s strike.

www.teslarati.com

 

[2daMoon]

Mod: copyrighted content removed.

They can certainly get wordy trying to twist the mere fact that Tesla chooses to not enter into a voluntary agreement.

What is it about the simple word "no" that is so difficult for IF Metal to accept?

 

[heltok]

Imo her choice of language says a lot about herself.
IF Metall's Marie Nilsson: "I just want to negotiate, but how the hell is an American going to understand that?!"

Actually Musk is African. So she should have said:
IF Metall's Marie Nilsson: "I just want to negotiate, but how the hell is an African going to understand that?!"

Now it should be more clear what kind of person she is...

 

[Zuikkis]

It's voluntary for Tesla to give me a Model S Plaid for free. Perhaps I should write Elon a letter and ask for one?

 

[MP3Mike]

One is that it is the reduction in working hours we have in our agreement that they think is the hardest thing to accept.

Can anyone explain exactly what "reduction in working hours" means in terms of these collective agreements?

 

[2daMoon]

Regarding this...

Marie Nilsson: "I just want to negotiate, but how the hell is an American going to understand that?!"​

It seems that Marie uses the word "negotiate" without taking into account how the application of the term's definition includes being based upon mutual agreement.

It is probably best to start such a negotiation from common ground. What can Marie (or IF Metal) and representatives of Tesla Sweden both agree upon? It would be interesting to hear from proponents of a collective agreement upon how not starting from a stance of mutual respect is a key aspect of their failure in achieving what they call negotiation.

The very nature of the so-called "dispute" is actually over IF Metal's management being unable to start from the fact that there is no requirement for Tesla to negotiate when IF Metal will neither accept nor acknowledge that "no collective agreement" can be a legitimate outcome supported by law, ethics, and morality. Most would classify this behavior as a form of denial.

Disregarding the voluntary nature of the thing they hold so dear (their ability to exercise power over others) was where they went wrong. They then embarked upon using strong-arm tactics to "negotiate" when they didn't actually have a very strong arm.

After this failed, they now write a small novel of nonsense in an attempt at virtue signalling, while continuing to avoid any attempt to approach Tesla Sweden's management with a reasonable argument for how entering into a collective agreement would benefit Tesla Sweden. Such an approach does not in any way represent a step toward negotiation.

They are euphemistically saying "negotiation" while applying tactics most often reserved to bullies, organized crime, and terrorists. Yet, they keep trying to paint this as if some fact exists which would justify IF Metal's position, when there is no actual grievance being claimed.

It is a stretch to conceive of any moral high ground being defended when IF Metal's argument for forcing companies to enter into a collective agreement is based entirely upon the imagined potential for some future grievance to occur.

Here's a bit of wisdom that might be worthy of their consideration,

"If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it."​

 

[Tiger]

Can anyone explain exactly what "reduction in working hours" means in terms of these collective agreements?

Higher pay per hours worked.

 

[Zuikkis]

Can anyone explain exactly what "reduction in working hours" means in terms of these collective agreements?

Higher pay per hours worked.

No, it's not that, at least not directly.

Collective agreements specify maximum working hours per day/week/month etc. Working overtime might be allowed but at much higher wage and only in special occasions. If constant overtime is needed, company is supposed to hire more workers.

Also usually overtime is forbidden if company is laying people off. So you can't fire someone and then make other people work more to fill the gap.

Typically you work like 40 hours per week and anything more is supposed to be random extra but not every week.

I don't know how many hours Tesla mechanics work per week. I know in Finland they work in two 7h shifts (8-15 and 15-22) but then again they are open at Saturdays also. But still it might not be same person working in every 6 days?

Note that limiting work hours might not be the workers interest either. If you are young and single you might appreciate the extra income and not mind working some extra.

 

[2daMoon]

Obviously, as a TSLA investor, we may need this strike to continue and maybe even escalate a bit more.

Tesla Sweden's sales jump over 100% in 2024 despite IF Metall strike

Tesla Sweden appears to be thriving despite its conflict with IF Metall, with deliveries from January to February seeing a 100% increase.

www.teslarati.com

Go IF Metal, you folks rock!

Maybe this isn't working out for Tesla exactly as the union had intended?

 

[jabloomf1230]

Obviously, as a TSLA investor, we may need this strike to continue and maybe even escalate a bit more.

Tesla Sweden's sales jump over 100% in 2024 despite IF Metall strike

Tesla Sweden appears to be thriving despite its conflict with IF Metall, with deliveries from January to February seeing a 100% increase.

www.teslarati.com

Go IF Metal, you folks rock!

Maybe this isn't working out for Tesla exactly as the union had intended?

You're just joking, but sometimes even "bad" publicity is good advertising.

 

[heltok]

Teslastrejkens effekter: Verkstäder tappar stort

Ett tiotal bilverkstäder har tappat hälften eller mer av sina intäkter.

www-borskollen-se.translate.goog

- Our member companies that have collective agreements are hit hard and suffer quite a lot, some of them. There are big consequences for them. Some have, when we talk about the workshops, up to 70 percent of their turnover affected by this, says Annika Nordin, head of employer affairs at Transportföretagen.

In total, around 80 workshops are affected by IF Metall's sympathy notice. And about ten of them have lost around 50 percent of their income as a result of not being allowed to repair Tesla cars anymore, according to Annika Nordin. For the remaining 70, it is a loss of income of between five and 40 percent.

 

[2daMoon]

Teslastrejkens effekter: Verkstäder tappar stort

Ett tiotal bilverkstäder har tappat hälften eller mer av sina intäkter.

www-borskollen-se.translate.goog

- Our member companies that have collective agreements are hit hard and suffer quite a lot, some of them. There are big consequences for them. Some have, when we talk about the workshops, up to 70 percent of their turnover affected by this, says Annika Nordin, head of employer affairs at Transportföretagen.

In total, around 80 workshops are affected by IF Metall's sympathy notice. And about ten of them have lost around 50 percent of their income as a result of not being allowed to repair Tesla cars anymore, according to Annika Nordin. For the remaining 70, it is a loss of income of between five and 40 percent.

It seems to me that a copy of Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" may not be the sort of book to be found on the library shelf at IF Metal.

If IF Metal's goal is to definitively demonstrate how detrimental a union can be for the workers and for the companies that are obligated to join sympathy strikes, they are well on the way to success.

What can they think of next to further alienate their peers while fighting so valiantly for Tesla Sweden to enter into a collective agreement that their own employees do not want Tesla to do?

 

[Rarity]

- Our member companies that have collective agreements are hit hard and suffer quite a lot, some of them. There are big consequences for them. Some have, when we talk about the workshops, up to 70 percent of their turnover affected by this, says Annika Nordin, head of employer affairs at Transportföretagen.

In total, around 80 workshops are affected by IF Metall's sympathy notice. And about ten of them have lost around 50 percent of their income as a result of not being allowed to repair Tesla cars anymore, according to Annika Nordin. For the remaining 70, it is a loss of income of between five and 40 percent.

Regarding the workshops, do most of them have collective agreements? Are there enough of those without collective agreements to service the Tesla vehicles that are on the road?

 

[Tiger]

Regarding the workshops, do most of them have collective agreements? Are there enough of those without collective agreements to service the Tesla vehicles that are on the road?

My guess is that when entering the markets Tesla leans on third party workshops to pave the way (can be seen especially in countries where Tesla has no official presence) for Tesla so it doesn't have to take on so much of the risk. Now that Tesla is already established and competing workshops are out of business (due to IF Metall), Tesla can safely and profitably build its own workshops to do the work previously done by the third party shops. Perhaps Tesla can even hire the experienced employees from the workshops that lost work due to IF Metall, the ones that prefer to work.

 

[heltok]

Regarding the workshops, do most of them have collective agreements? Are there enough of those without collective agreements to service the Tesla vehicles that are on the road?

All the workshops losing business because the union forced them to do the sympathy have collective agreements. Instead the customers are going to workshops without collective agreement. The consequences of a sympathy strike is to force customers from the companies doing the strike to the companies not doing the strike...

 

[heltok]

This is such a weird article. The strike guards are so proud of their efforts saving the world by waving at 2 cars passing by in 2 hours:

Två bilar på två timmar – strejkvakternas kamp mot Tesla och tristessen

I fyra månader har IF Metall strejkvakter envist dykt upp utanför Teslas grindar i sina lysande västar. Trots kylan och ledan känner de att de gör skillnad. Tesla-strejken är nu den längsta arbetsmarknadskonflikten i Sverige sedan 1945.

da-se.translate.goog

At 10.02 a small and unmarked truck drives at high speed through the industrial area. The gravel splashes across the asphalt as it slips between the red IF Metall flags. The tail lift is already halfway down when the driver steps on the brake pedal, away at the electric car workshop.

Tobias acts as if on instinct. Realizing that there is a chance to see how the work is progressing inside Tesla. He takes a few quick steps away towards the workshop gate.

At the same moment, the truck driver tears open the driver's door, lowers the tail lift, picks up a package and half-runs to a waiting workshop worker. Everything happens as if in one continuous movement. Tobias has barely made it there before it's all over. The workshop gate folds down as quickly as it was opened.

But Tobias probably managed to get a small glimpse.

- There was only one car in there, he says with satisfaction when he returns.

- You feel that you are making a difference, it wouldn't have been this calm if we weren't standing here.

 

[2daMoon]

I was torn between giving the post a Smiley or an Informative, and went with the latter.

That seems like a pitiful existence for those two strikers. I can't imagine them actually feeling like they are making a difference.

These news releases appear as if they are attempts to stir the emotions toward those poor union strikers, and instead come across washed in hopelessness. Particularly after reading several of them. Maybe there is some subtle cultural aspect of language being lost through Google Translate?

The articles routinely fall well short of showing the union being a David to what they see as Tesla being a Goliath and instead leave the reader feeling rather moribund about any potential for IF Metal's success. It is as if they aren't even loading the slingshot, instead just waving it around as Goliath sits on a nearby rock, becoming bored with these attempts at a taunt.

 

[heltok]

I was torn between giving the post a Smiley or an Informative, and went with the latter.

That seems like a pitiful existence for those two strikers. I can't imagine them actually feeling like they are making a difference.

These news releases appear as if they are attempts to stir the emotions toward those poor union strikers, and instead come across washed in hopelessness. Particularly after reading several of them. Maybe there is some subtle cultural aspect of language being lost through Google Translate?

The articles routinely fall well short of showing the union being a David to what they see as Tesla being a Goliath and instead leave the reader feeling rather moribund about any potential for IF Metal's success. It is as if they aren't even loading the slingshot, instead just waving it around as Goliath sits on a nearby rock, becoming bored with these attempts at a taunt.

It's as bad in Swedish... I think they are trying their best to keep morale high with these stories showing the union strike guards as heroes fighting the elements of nature. But when you try hard to tell a story about yourself you just seem desperate. But it's all they can do, they lack important stories to tell and have to try to make the mundane into something worth telling.