18 ms·
Swedish unions strike: Blocks mail and package deliveries for Tesla
- TraspSE 3y agoTLDR; The Swedish union of Service and Communications puts Tesla on notice of a sympathy strike, refusing to deliver mail and packages to Tesla in support of IF Metall's demand of a collective agreement. The action will go into effect on the 20th of November, 2023. ----- Translation ------- IF Metall's fight is also our fight. By refusing to comply with the rules of the game here in Sweden, Tesla is trying to gain competitive advantages by giving the workers worse wages and conditions than they would have with a collective agreement. It is of course completely unacceptable. The fight that IF Metall is now taking is important for the entire Swedish collective agreement model. Therefore, our union board has chosen to issue a sympathy notice, says Seko's union president, Gabriella Lavecchia. Seko's sympathy measures involve a blockade against the delivery, delivery and collection of shipments, letters, packages and pallets made by PostNord and CityMail to all of Tesla's workplaces in all locations in Sweden. This means that, for example, spare parts and components for the workshops will not be delivered by these logistics companies. The blockade means that the sympathy measures remain even if another company takes over the blocked work. - We back IF Metall 100 percent in this important conflict. We are in an important period for the Swedish trade union movement and for the Swedish model. We and our members will do everything we can so that together we will emerge victorious from this fight for fair conditions for Tesla's employees, says Seko's contract secretary, Ulrika Nilsson. Seko's industrial action will take effect on 20 November 2023 at 01:00 Notice of extension of conflict measures will be taken in the event that there is a violation of the strike measures.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- VoxPelli 3y agoEnglish update in sympathy strikes here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38191008 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38191008
- nabla9 3y agoAmerican companies often think that European unions are just stronger than unions in Europe. They don't realize that labor and union laws are different. Toys R Us tried the same in Sweden. They initially refused agreement and hired only non-union workers. But transport and logistics workers union and finance union started sympathy strike. Toys R Us didn't get deliveries and bank workers refused work related to company.
- INTPenis 3y agoAnother oft cited example is the McDonalds strike of '88 in Denmark. I'm very proud of being part of this scandinavian society when it shows this kind of solidarity with workers. Workers are after all the majority of society.
- Ekaros 3y agoAlso they forget that on average they are pretty benign. At least in my field they ask for quite tame things. And them being same union for everyone means that you don't really lose much to competitors. As they will have same rules in place...
- VoxPelli 3y agoYeah, the idea of the Swedish model being that it’s better for employers and workers union to decide details as then they can be adapted to the need of every specific field rather than be dictated by the government and be the same for all. Makes for a much more agile, progressive and cooperative environment that benefits both businesses and workers. Unions in Sweden don’t try to get paid the most possible by the employers – they want fair wages and healthy companies and together with employer organizations they try to make up rules that benefit both, as healthy companies and happy workers are beneficial for all parties
- DanielHB 3y agoI had 3.5% union-agreed raise this year against an almost 10% inflation year-on-year. In Sweden the unions are not out to screw the employers over, the unions know the companies are under stress due to market downturn and share the burden with employees. Before the downturn I consistently had at least 1% raise above inflation for several years.
- willsmith72 3y agoIt's only 120 employees.. Come on Tesla, do you have to prove how special you are?
- hef19898 3y agoAmazon is an interesting example: In Germany they insisted on paying their warehouse workers based on, but not boind by, Germany's collective bargained logistics agreement (Tarifvertrag) and not the retail one. On France, during the same time, they accepted the French retail agreement with the respective unions. Guess which one, retail or logistics, has the lower salaries in each country. That Tesla isn't even willing to accept the smallest concessions in countries they operate in, no idea why they do this...
- jampekka 3y agoIn Finland this is called "agreement shopping" and it's not exclusive to Amazon. Sadly happens all the time and unions seem to be losing the fight. https://fi.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty%C3%B6ehtoshoppailu https://fi.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty%C3%B6ehtoshoppailu
- livrem 3y agoAmazon avoided having to sign a collective agreement with a union in Sweden by outsourcing their business in Sweden to some other company. The workers in that company have a collective agreement. I guess some arrangement like this could work for Musk as well if he wants to save face and pretend like Tesla still never signs collective agreements?
- xenospn 3y agoHubris.
- seee-I-Told-you 3y agoUnions are a good thing, definately right now when the competition from "slave owners" in eastern Europe, China etc will exploit workers and outrun competition that way. For Tesla, with China's export of electric vehicle it would be a good thing to "set the bar" and prevent low cost workers from entering the market - hence securing Tesla's position in Sweden. And that's what the "Swedish model" of working is all about, Unions "set the lower bar" for what is acceptable and what is not.
- aborsy 3y agoNot necessarily. They protect exploitation of the some of the workers, but often bring about abuse and host of other problems.
- guilamu 3y agoAny kind of reference, please and thank you, to corroborate those affirmations?
- lawn 3y agoPlease remember that unions in Sweden aren't the same as unions in the US.
- edgyquant 3y agoCan you explain how they differ?
- rvnx 3y agoI understand the feeling of Aborsy; in another European country (France) Unions are a non-elected political force that seizes power by force in a factory / company. Once they have established their power, they do anything they can to impose their law on other workers and collect money from both the owners, and the other employees. And to be considered part of the group, you have to pay an annual membership to them in order to get “protected”.
- 3y ago
- readams 3y ago[flagged]
- gamache 3y agoThey are acting like organized labor! And all strikes are aimed at individual companies.
- throwawa14223 3y agoIt's a cartel shaking down a company, if that's organized labor it should be illegal.
- cyberax 3y agoOK. What if a company wants to close a plant, because it's not profitable enough? It's also an organized (corporate) action, so it must be disallowed?
- throwawa14223 3y agoOne of those is a business decision about what to do with their private property the other is an external actor demanding what you do with your private property.
- JCWasmx86 3y agoOne is a business decision, the other one is people exercising their rights.
- throwawa14223 3y agoPeople don't have rights over others private property that's the of the basis of human rights.
- 3y ago
- mattcantstop 3y agoWhen discussing wages and such people imply that it's a balanced situation, because if someone doesn't like the wage they can simply not work at the company. That is theoretically true, but we see pushback on strikes and unions. Strikes and unions are the _primary_ form of employees actually using their bargaining power with companies. What is hard to do individually, becomes much easier as a union when workers unite and bargain together. I hope to see more bargaining and unionizing by workers. We need a shift in the power dynamics in the United States.
- throwawaysleep 3y ago[flagged]
- derelicta 3y agoIn this case its not about the EU in itself, but unions acting as gatekeepers for their membres as to avoid mistreatments and low wages.
- jampekka 3y agoAnd USA wonders why it has the world's highest incarceration rate, least cost-effective healthcare system, daily mass shootings, massive homeless population and declining life expectancy.
- avbanks 3y agoWhy do you assume he's American? From his history he's Canadian fyi.
- avgcorrection 3y agoMaybe because so many comments in this thread are pre-emptive “let me explain this in terms that Americans can understand”.
- avbanks 3y agoI shouldn't have to tell you this but the world doesn't revolve around the United States :)
- avgcorrection 3y agoYou would have to tell HN. But then you would probably get some startup stump speech about how The Rest of The World should build technology better if they want a more worldly HN (probably not wrong).
- kzrdude 3y ago
- ChrisArchitect 3y agoRelated from earlier: Workers in Sweden Will Expand Strike Against Tesla https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38190600 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38190600
- art3m 3y agoTesla built factory in Germany and hired thousands of workers while Volvo build new EX40 car completely in China. Just saying.
- TraspSE 3y agoGeely Holding Group owns 51% of Volvo Cars, your argument is invalid. (The trucks are manufactured by Volvo AB.)
- Alifatisk 3y agoVolvo is chinese
- VoxPelli 3y agoVolvo Cars AB is a publicly traded Swedish company traded on the Stockholm stock exchange. They have to comply with all relevant Swedish laws for a public Swedish company and all requirements imposed by the Stockholm stock exchange. Geely Holding owns 82% of Volvo Cars AB according to recent data. Swedish pension companies AMF and Folksam are second and third largest owner with 3.8% and 2.0% of the votes. So while Geely of course has a massive influence on the company, they can not do whatever they want, they have to abide by the rules and respect the other owners as well, and the other owners are also present on eg the board
- jeltz 3y agoHow is a Chinese company building some cars in China relevant to unions in Sweden? Geely also still builds plenty of cars in Sweden.
- dinvlad 3y agoAnything someone does to stick it to Musk and his ilk of tech CEOs is such a powerful move, in my book!
- kakoni 3y agoIn Finland, we’re celebrating the Wolt founders for paying so much taxes. At The sametime their platform has significantly disrupted traditional labor structures. The core innovation seems to lie in navigating around established labor laws and union regulations.
- Ajay-p 3y agoBlocking the mail seems overly aggressive. I don't agree with that tactic.
- VoxPelli 3y agoWhat Tesla is currently doing is overly aggressive to the Swedish labor market model, so in that perspective it’s not disproportionate.
- geo1999 3y agoIn America , Corporate Interests and demands are taken more seriously than the Rights of Citizens or what the Law states. And our Senators and Congress fall right in line behind the Chamber of Commerce to make sure Unions do not expand and our citizens are denied their lawful rights to organize any unions. Corporations hold meetings threating loss of jobs if any organizing by any employees. They turn employees against each other. All this is illegal but our elected officials go along with the companies and they can do what they want.