Norwegian Union Blocking Tesla Exports To Sweden
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Norway’s largest private sector union is considering blocking the shipping of any Tesla car bound for the Swedish market. The Fellesforbundet (United Federation of Trade Unions) could start its blockade of the electric automaker’s vehicles as early as December 20, Reuters reports. The Norwegian union aims to help force Tesla to agree to a collective bargaining agreement with Sweden’s Tesla mechanics.
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While Tesla doesn’t produce vehicles in Sweden, the American automaker still employs around 130 mechanics to service its cars at company workshops across the Scandinavian country. The mechanics, a part of the IF Metall union, began its strike on October 27. The labor dispute quickly spread as others moved to support the strike. Swedish dockworkers and car dealerships are refusing to move and sell Tesla’s products.
It hasn’t been a frictionless show of solidarity. PostNord, Denmark and Sweden’s state-owned postal company, was ordered by a court to honor its contract with the Swedish Transport Agency and deliver license plates to Tesla.
Norway isn’t the first neighboring country to show solidarity with the Swedish strike. The Danish United Federation of Workers (3F) announced earlier this week that its truck drivers and dockworkers will not transport Tesla vehicles on their way to Sweden. According to Reuters, 3F President Jan Villadsen said in a statement, “Like the companies, the trade union movement is global in the fight to protect workers.”
Similar pressures allowed the 11,000 workers at Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg in Germany to unionize. This is all occurring as the United Auto Workers launches a push to unionize Tesla workers in the United States alongside the entire non-union portion of the American automotive industry. While Tesla claims its working conditions are equal to or better than workers’ demand, the automaker remains heavily resistant to unionization.
