Elon Musk said it’s “insane” how a labor dispute in Sweden affecting seven repair shops has spread to hamper Tesla Inc.’s operations in the largest Nordic country.
Dockworkers, garbage collectors, electricians, and postal workers now refuse to do any tasks related to Tesla, after their trade groups stepped in to support the Swedish industrial workers’ union IF Metall that’s been striking since Oct. 27. Nine unions are now part of the blockade on the maker of electric vehicles.
Swedish labor unions have wide-ranging rights, enshrined in law, to join action on behalf of their peers. In contrast, similar moves are tightly regulated or outright banned in several other European countries.
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The postal workers’ protest specifically ired Musk. It’s preventing the Swedish Transport Agency from delivering license plates to new Tesla cars as regulations allow no other delivery than by post. That means no new Teslas can be taken into use in Sweden.
The chief executive officer and co-founder of the automaker was made aware of the fact in a post on X, the platform he owns that was previously known as Twitter, prompting his response: “This is insane.”
His intervention underscores how the parties to the dispute are digging in.
As the repair-shop strikes are about to enter their fifth week, negotiations have ground to a halt. The chief mediator between the two parties told Swedish business daily Dagens Industri on Tuesday that Tesla’s subsidiary in Sweden has “zero maneuvering room” to sign any deal with the union, and said it is on “orders straight from Elon Musk.”
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