I’ve written this in other threads so it will just be a repetition for a lot of you who are following how the story unfolds.
Here in Sweden we don’t have any laws defining “minimum wage” and some laws regulating things like minimum amount of vacation days can be “replaced” in an agreement.
Now, the idea is that the parties of the labour market, employers and employees should deal with these issues because politicians should stay the f*** away from things they know nothing about. The agreement is normally renegotiated by the employer organisations (yes, the employers are also organized here) and employee organisations (unions) every 2-3 years. While signing an collective agreement is not mandatory it is still expected. It’s the norm.
In my experience employers refuse to agree on collective minimums is because they want to be able to do whatever they want with their employees.
But the reason we have those things is also because of the way our workforce is organised. Had we not been so well organised we wouldn’t have structured society in such a way.
The big problem comes when participation in the union goes down. The lower the number of active members, the lower the quality of candidates in important positions. There’s an issue with that going around which pretty much all of society is working on. Corruption is of course a thing in places of society to some extent but with high trust in the system comes a self-correctiveness that helps stave it off some. What also helps is building robust processes for voting and handling issues, which Sweden has done in most if not all of our democratic institutions.
Tesla/Musk really went for the “I have the right to not use collective bargaining” and is really shocked to find out people went for “we have the right to strike”.
After 130 workers at Tesla repair shops walked out, the first show of solidarity came from union dockworkers who refused to unload Tesla vehicles from cargo ships in early November. Then, on November 20th, postal workers joined the effort by refusing to deliver mail to Tesla, including license plates.
On the 20th of December other Nordic unions will stop deliveries of Tesla’s to Sweden if no agreement is signed. 24th of December, the day we celebrate Christmas in Sweden, this trash stop will come into effect. Great present.
Tesla will have to skip trash day in Sweden as the country’s labor groups continue to protest the company’s anti-union policies.
Reuters reports the country’s Transport Workers’ Union will refuse to pick up waste at the automaker’s workshops in solidarity with Tesla autoworkers who’ve been on strike since October 27th.
Tesla has resisted collective bargaining agreements worldwide, but Sweden’s strong labor culture is continuing to test the automaker’s policy.
Then, on November 20th, postal workers joined the effort by refusing to deliver mail to Tesla, including license plates.
On November 27th, the automaker then sued and initially won the right to pick up the license plates directly from Sweden’s Transport Agency.
Tesla’s license plate victory was short-lived, however, as another Swedish court put a pause on the ruling until a final decision is made.
The original article contains 254 words, the summary contains 134 words. Saved 47%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!