Danish transport union 3F Transport joined the dispute between Swedish union IF Metall and Elon Musk’s Tesla over the latter’s refusal to sign a collective agreement, Euractiv reports.
IF Metall has received support from Danish union 3F Transport, which has decided to enter into a sympathy dispute with its Swedish colleagues, after six weeks of intense struggle and industrial action over a collective agreement at Tesla workshops in Sweden.
Now harbour workers and drivers will not be able to receive and transport Tesla cars to Sweden. Jan Villadsen, chairman of 3F Transport, noted in a press release:
With the sympathy strike, we are now putting further pressure on Tesla. Naturally, we hope that they will come to the negotiating table as soon as possible and sign a collective agreement.
Some Swedish labour unions have recently come forward to Tesla to demand collective bargaining agreements for their workshops. However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not in favour of this idea. He said in an interview with The New York Times:
I disagree with the idea of unions. I think the unions naturally try to create negativity in the company and create a sort of lords and peasants situation.
Last week, Musk decided to sue the Swedish Transport Administration and Postnord because the strike is preventing his company from getting car licence plates. On social network X, he wrote that the situation is “insane.” Musk has not yet reacted in any way to the strike by sympathisers in Denmark. Villadsen wrote in the press release:
Even if you’re one of the richest people in the world, you can’t just make your own rules. We have some labour market agreements in the Nordic region, and you have to comply with them if you want to run a business here. Solidarity is the cornerstone of the labour movement and extends across national borders. That is why we are now taking the tools we have and using them to ensure collective agreements and fair working conditions.
