12/06/2023

Tesla’s Labor Fight in Sweden Could Soon Spread to Denmark

Danish workers could soon launch "sympathy strikes"

At the end of October, mechanics at several Tesla-owned repair shops in Sweden walked off the jobs, setting off a strike that has since garnered support from unions across the country. Now, that labor action is crossing borders: Denmark's largest union, 3F, said on Tuesday that it supports those Swedish mechanics, and that it could launch a sympathy strike within a few weeks, in which its workers will not transport or unload any Tesla vehicles heading to Sweden.

Though Tesla has no manufacturing plants in Sweden, it has service centers in seven cities and dealerships in nine cities. Other jobs, like dockworkers who unload shipments of Teslas at ports across the country, support the automaker's presence in the country. Teslas are also popular with Swedish consumers; its Model Y has been the bestselling vehicle there this year.

Unions play a big part in the Swedish workforce—nearly 70 percent of Swedish employees are union members, and about 88 percent are coveredby collective bargaining agreements. (The right to strike is even in the Swedish constitution.) Tesla workers, however, aren't covered by any collective agreement, which is what they are striking to achieve. (Though the mechanics are represented by a union, as most trade workers there are; in Sweden, employers aren't allowed to prevent a worker from joining a trade union.) Mechanics at Tesla repair shops have been demanding that the car company talk about adopting a collective bargaining agreement for years. Workers went on strike beginning October 27.

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