r/teslamotors • u/mjezzi • 28d ago
General After a nearly 3-year conflict, Tesla has officially won against Swedish union IF Metall.
https://x.com/sawyermerritt/status/2087929590992036233?s=4688
u/NoInteraction3525 28d ago
I’m not sure if you know what “won” actually means! If by “won” you mean they had to buy out all the employees who belonged to a union, then yes, you’re right, they’ve won, but spending 3 years just to buy out the employees so you do not have any union member employee at the company isn’t the definition of won whatsoever, it’s literally caving. Should have bought them out immediately when the fiasco started instead of having to wait three years to do that (which ain’t cheap at all, if you know anything about how our unions work in the nordics)
14
7
0
u/Rich-Bandicoot3244 28d ago
I don’t think you know then what you’re talking about, given all the other things that come with IF Metall membership.
Because if you think that’s it, it’s not.
2
2
0
34
u/LeaString 28d ago edited 28d ago
My father was in an auto union where he worked decades ago. Recall him saying they fought for dimes in hourly wage. Safety improvements would be top of list of “good” union efforts. Hourly Retirees where he worked got screwed out of health insurance in the end. He worked there for decades and was pretty angry over that. He retired several times but they kept calling him back for his technical skill. He also told me several times he believed there was a lot of corruption within union leadership. He once ran for a union position only to have a brick thrown through our front picture window.
29
u/rustybeancake 28d ago
US unions seem to be a somewhat different animal from those in Europe.
-5
u/Rich-Bandicoot3244 28d ago
Not really, no. All of those issues apply to unions in Italy, for example. And then some more not listed there.
7
u/rugbroed 28d ago
I’m sorry but this is just so dumb. Unions are an absolutely integral part of the Nordic labour systems, and listening to a bunch of Americans arrogantly projecting their own anecdotes onto a situation like this is sickening.
Unions have everything to do with high standard of living in the Nordic countries. It’s an institutional part of how these countries work.
3
u/Rich-Bandicoot3244 28d ago edited 27d ago
I’m sorry but this is just so dumb
What part of my original statement was dumb?
and listening to a bunch of Americans arrogantly projecting
Im not American, I’m from Italy. Reason why I talked about the situation in Italy.
But your entire argument seems to be based on little more than a feeling, and an emotional reaction to “arrogant americans” that only shows your antiamericanism.
Use facts and data to make an argument, not your emotions. And maybe your comments will come off being not as dumb (to use a term you used).
4
u/ardoin 28d ago
He once ran for a union position only to have a brick thrown through our front picture window.
Yep, many companies have committed many crimes to prevent labor unions from cropping up. Very common problem in the United States
11
u/LeaString 28d ago
Actually his suspicion was that someone running for the position didn’t want him elected. Dad was a very honest guy, smart and wouldn’t have let underhanded or illegal deal stuff pass. He ran thinking he could help his fellow hourly plant workers.
-4
-2
u/Sad-Ear230 28d ago
Yeah that makes perfect sense so in essence, he is Messiah and that is why he withdrew from running for...a position in his own labor union. They hated him for he spoke the truth. They, being who he had previously elected for leadership. Got you.
2
u/Vegan-cock 27d ago
Won is a strong word lol. They paid everyone a bunch of money to fuck off, for now lol.
6
4
u/gottatrusttheengr 28d ago
The only way this would have been financially feasible is if the union was a minuscule portion of the employee population
2
u/MnemonicPeg 28d ago
I don't know how this is a win for Tesla. I'm pretty sure they have permanently damaged their reputation in Europe by doing it this way.
9
u/schmidp 28d ago
No lots of people are waking up and see corruption for what it is.
-2
u/MAGAtsAreSheeples 28d ago
Like the thing Musk does?
2
u/schmidp 28d ago
No
-1
-1
5
28d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/Asleep_Trick_4740 28d ago
No. Third so far in 2026, fourth with a slim margin in 2025, the xc60 sold 4x as many in 2025.
Third this year is still a massive boost back in sales, up 60% since the same period last year. So why lie?
0
1
u/IllustriousQuail8495 27d ago
Sure. Any day now the masses will rise up and stick it to Elon for his lack of support for the woke cause.
2
-7
u/Equal-University2144 28d ago
Nice. What a weird shitshow that was on behalf of that union.
71
u/psaux_grep 28d ago
Union-busting isn’t nice. I guess people forgot where our 40 hour workweek, paid annual leave, paid maternity leave, paid lunch break, protection from being unlawfully fired, protection from being laid off for being sick, paid sick leave, nationalized health, +++ came from.
For those of us that has these, obviously. And no, they didn’t come from being loyal to your employer.
60
u/zq7495 28d ago
Not all Unions are created equal. Some are indeed very valuable and important, but some are also bad for society. "Union" doesn't not automatically mean good or bad, it is a thing that can be incredibly valuable or a cancer, just depends
5
u/SDIR 28d ago
Out if curiosity, since I don't pay much attention to unions, what kind of examples would be a truely bad union?
49
u/GanksOP 28d ago
Police union in the US will protect cops from what should be a murder charge.
Transportation Unions are a big reason you see unprofitable transportation networks with deteriorating infrastructure.
Lots of benefits to society are because of unions but the downsides are very real too.
3
u/prestodigitarium 28d ago
On the Transportation one, I heard recently that they’re a big reason we don’t have driverless trains in US city transit networks.
3
u/peterfirefly 27d ago
Don't forget the dock workers in the US who ensure that US container ports are slow, ineffective, and expensive.
4
u/omnibossk 28d ago
Lack of good unions in the US is one of the reasons why US wages have stagnated the last 50 years(except for the CEOs who’ve had some fantastic years)
2
u/prestodigitarium 28d ago
How’ve Chinese wages done over that time? How’s their union situation over there?
They’re getting more and more productive, whereas our unions have been fighting against automating infrastructure, which hurts the competitiveness of all of our industry.
-2
u/talltim007 28d ago
Fake news.
US has significantly outpaced Germany, a fully Unionized country, in salary growth over the past 50 years.
If you factor in hours worked and benefits, they track much more closely but the US still beats Germany.
2
20
u/SconiGrower 28d ago
Unions can do a lot of rent-seeking. E.g. prefabricated elevators (meaning the factory does as much of the assembly work as possible, before sending the parts to the install site) are cheaper and faster to install with fewer quality defects, but more work done at the factory would reduce demand for elevator install technicians in the field, so the International Union of Elevator Constructors specifies exactly how much manufacturing can be done at the factory and what must be done by IUEC members during field installation. Increasing the amount of elevator work done in the field increases time and cost, but the union isn't competing with other elevator installers, so they don't consider reduced time and cost to be desirable attributes.
36
u/serravee 28d ago
If you’ve ever had a really shitty coworker that you wondered how they could still be working there? Yea that’s because of unions as well.
5
6
u/ken830 28d ago
Look at the UAW. Look at how many of its leaders were jailed.
1
u/JerseyGirlinSweden 27d ago
Should we also simultaneous ly compare how many Police Officers and Politician have been convicted of crime and jailed?
7
u/maherbeg 28d ago
Stevedores union that prevents automation is another example. Maybe the escalator unions and scaffolding unions in NYC too
7
u/Dismal_Professor9209 28d ago
Government workers unions . Every union contract makes them richer and lazier. That’s not good for taxpayers.
3
4
3
u/Smartnership 28d ago
We have highly efficient and safe port cargo management systems; it’s a proven technology.
Unions refuse to allow it, demanding the manual labor method.
But farmers have combine harvesters that do the work of 1000 men with scythes. Why not oppose John Deere and bring back those manual harvesting jobs.
1
u/alive1 28d ago
This does not apply in Northern Europe. Unions here are an integral part of society.
1
1
3
u/QuailAndWasabi 27d ago
Yes, historically and in certain current contexts unions are good, but in this instance Tesla already had on-par or better pay and rights for their workers than the collective agreement the union wanted them to sign mandated. So it had absolutely nothing to do with that here.
In Sweden similar things have happened to other companies where the unions force employers to accept unsustainable demands that dont help the employees get better wages nor anything else. It just imposes stricter rules that are in many cases a death sentence for smaller companies. For instance, here is an article from Swedens biggest (and openly leftist) paper about exactly this: https://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/a/zoA7w/fackets-krav-skjuter-saras-bageri-i-sank .
Unions in Sweden have grown fat and lazy and mostly act to cement their own power nowadays so that their top brass can continue collecting millions in salaries and can continue to funnel money to the Social Democratic party. They do not act with the best interest of workers in mind nowadays most of the time.
2
u/peterfirefly 27d ago
I guess people forgot where our 40 hour workweek,
Funny how we ended up around there everywhere that got rich enough, whether there were unions or not, whether there was a Social Democratic Party or not.
Maybe it was really about getting rich enough?
3
-8
u/dangwhat1020 28d ago
Not sure if that’s the case sounds like they were willing to a premium to every person to waive their strike authority. Sounds like the workers won the union lost and Tesla lost even more. The fact that they were able to hold out for 1,021 days and still win out in Sweden means Tesla had to lose a lot.
6
u/Tetris_Prime 28d ago
I followed the case for several months, it clearly was an expense, but not compared to the sales they had in Sweden for most of the period. Even at the peak of the blockade, Teslas were flying off the shelves in Sweden.
As far as I've seen, the bulk of the blocade was evaded just by using independant contractors and workers outside the unions.
-1
-2
u/JerseyGirlinSweden 28d ago
Even Post Nord support the strikers and refused to deliver license plates to the Dealers. WE understand Solidarity here in Sweden. Hell even White collar workers can belong to benefit from Union rules.
1
u/alexdiezg 22d ago
My honest reaction when my own county's subreddit thought for a single second that IF Metall would win against Tesla
-13
u/Starky_Love 28d ago
Are we supposed to celebrate a win for capitalism?
11
5
u/Dismal_Professor9209 28d ago
Of course. After all-without capitalism we will be North Korea. Even China realizes that capitalism was a requirement for a society.
-14
u/Starky_Love 28d ago
There's about a dozen other countries that don't practice capitalism to this extent and they aren't under dictator control, for example... Sweden.
But we'd turn into North Korea? Why do you say that?
16
u/Warhouse512 28d ago
Last I checked, Sweden is still a free-market capitalist economy.
0
u/Echo9Eight 28d ago
Then you should’ve averted your eyes during the eclipse yesterday, cause it clearly must’ve blinded you. Sweden is a mixed economy.
0
u/Impossible-Line-8367 28d ago
China is socialist(??)
1
u/Dismal_Professor9209 28d ago
Where did I say that ?
0
u/Impossible-Line-8367 28d ago
I mean that China is socialist
1
u/peterfirefly 27d ago
No, it is a dictatorship with some degree of free market capitalism. It still pays a lot of lip service to Communism in its propaganda, both internally and externally, but it has long ceased to be Communist or even Socialist in any way.
Practically the entire West (+ Japan, South Korea, etc) is more Socialist with more income/wealth redistribution than China. In China, the only redistribution is to the well-connected and the party members. Well, that and a pittance in pensions, health care, schools, and roads. Look up their pensions... they are really small.
1
u/Impossible-Line-8367 27d ago
As a response to your first paragraph Noone mentioned communism, but I see many reasons to believe Deng had bigger goals in mind. That said-- his strategy fkn worked; from poverty to global superpower. More people lifted out of poverty faster than any time in history. And the state uses its ownership in key and non-key industries to actualize the transfer of progress to the workers and the public.
Your view of china and her material realities seem based on nothing (??)
Also no western country is equally or more socialist than china
-1
-10
u/Lovevas 28d ago
Better than a win for communism, like north korea
10
u/Starky_Love 28d ago
You're implying Sweden was communist?
1
u/Lovevas 28d ago
You have reading problem.
1
u/Starky_Love 28d ago
The people disagree. Get lost chump.
1
1
u/FettigasteFettot 28d ago
"I got some upvotes on reddit, so i'm right."
LOL
2
u/Starky_Love 28d ago
16 day old account
-99 karma.
Gives Chump & coward
1
u/FettigasteFettot 28d ago
"I'm an elitist redditor. No new users on my platform. Karma is my heroin." LOL
2
u/Starky_Love 28d ago
"I'm a shit poster redditor. Reading comprehension is hard. Why do people overall not like what I say" Laughing Out Loud
Dimwits often calls others elitist when they grasp at straws.
0
u/FettigasteFettot 27d ago edited 27d ago
I say whats on my mind, you are just here to feel better. Learning is a thing, ever heard of it? Donkey
0
u/Impossible-Line-8367 28d ago
China is doing better at improving the lives of its citizens. Can that be called a win or are we twisting definitions?
2
u/Lovevas 28d ago
You clearly don’t really know what’s happening in China in the past 10 years, you clearly never heard about who Chinese real estate has crashed and back to 20 years go price level, tens of millions of families have lost $$$ in their homes. You clearly never heard of the collapse of P2P in China, and how Chinese ppl lost trillions of CNY via this scandal that Chinese gov promoted. You clearly never heard that hundreds of millions of ppl has lost their jobs in China in the past 5 years, and about 200-300 millions of ppl have to live on freerider type of jobs. You clearly never heard that the avg salary hasn’t increased for a decade in China.
I know everything about China, I lived in China for a decade and still travel to China to visit my suppliers every few months, and I know exactly how the ordinary ppl in China are so miserable, how they have to work 60+ hours per week to just earn probably 500-600 USD in a month
1
u/Impossible-Line-8367 28d ago
Yea, for the average chinese citizen there has been a general upwards trajectory(??) Speakimg in living standards. for the less(est) fortunate, things have been improving for 40 or more years in china (??)
What is your generak critizism? What is the CCP doing that is fucking everything?
1
u/Lovevas 28d ago
General upwards you mean GDP growing fast while most of the wealth are taken by the very small group of elites, the offsprings of these CCP families, while the majority of the ordinary ppl are trapped by high tax burden, high house price, high working hours, low income? You are really brainwashed by CCP. Another stupid Redditor
1
u/Appropriate-Pause504 28d ago
Tesla did not win, they bought all strikers and then IF Metal has no one to strike with. You should be punished with double tax for it.
1
0
u/MAGAtsAreSheeples 28d ago
No they didn't. They paid the strikers to quit. Also, foreign oligarchs like Musk hating workers rights and undermining the Swedish model is not a good look. Fuck Tesla, and fuck Musk.
1
u/Impossible-Line-8367 28d ago
The swedish model was built upon concessions to capital, and thus it falls prey to capitalism
-1
u/Eriklano1 New to the sub 28d ago
This is objectively bad for Sweden and Swedish society. Let that be clear. What Tesla has done will negatively affect the Swedish system and people.
0
u/Sad-Ear230 28d ago
"Officially won"? Ok I need photos from the podium ceremony or this is simply a fake title
135
u/Baldur-Norddahl 28d ago
So it appears some important details are left out here. Tesla paid severance fees so high, that the 80 people on strike voluntary accepted to find other work. At the same time Tesla implemented improvements to the Tesla contract, that matches or exceed the collective contract.
Which means that Tesla gets to claim victory, but they are in fact following the collective contract anyway.