The longest labor conflict in modern Swedish history is ending, and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) won it without signing a collective agreement. Swedish union IF Metall said Thursday that it will call off its strike against the electric-car maker on Aug. 19. The walkout reached day 1,021 this week -- about 130 Tesla mechanics across seven workshops were covered when the strike began on Oct. 27, 2023, demanding the collective agreement that covers most Swedish workers.
The strike isn't ending because either side gave in at the bargaining table. By the union's own account, Tesla offered severance packages to every remaining striking member, and enough of them accepted that IF Metall has no striking members left to represent. This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again.
In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue » The sympathy actions that spread across the Nordics end with it.
Dockworkers had blocked Sweden-bound Tesla cars in Denmark, Norway, and Finland, the postal service stopped delivering license plates for new Teslas, and electricians refused Tesla work. For nearly three years, Tesla absorbed all of that rather than sign. Sweden was a strange place for Tesla to dig in.
The company has no factory there. The dispute covered mechanics who service its cars, so the direct cost of meeting the union's demands would have been small. But I'd argue the agreement itself was the stake.
Tesla has never signed a collective agreement with IF Metall, and conceding one in Sweden could have handed organizers elsewhere in Europe a working template. So the company took the harder route. It rerouted cars around the port blockades, and it went to court where it could.
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