It has taken nearly a month, but workers striking against Tesla in Sweden have finally drawn a response from the company’s famously anti-union boss. “This is insane,” CEO Elon Musk said Thursday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter that he owns.

Musk was responding to news that Swedish postal workers are refusing to deliver Tesla license plates, joining a wave of action in sympathy with mechanics who stopped servicing Tesla cars late last month.

About 130 mechanics began their ongoing strike in October after their employer, a Tesla subsidiary in Sweden, announced that it would not recognize their labor union, according to Expressen, a CNN affiliate.

The industrial action soon spread to dockworkers who started blocking deliveries of Tesla cars at the country’s ports, to electricians who stopped maintenance work for the carmaker, and other workers in Sweden, Expressen reported.

“This is about good wages, good pensions and good insurance for all our members who work at Tesla,” Sweden’s IF Metall union, which called the original strike, said on its website.

“We have been negotiating with Tesla for a long time. They have refused to sign a collective (bargaining) agreement and violate basic principles in the Swedish labor market.”

The country’s workforce is heavily unionized, with around nine out of 10 workers covered by collective agreements.

But unionizing at Tesla has proved difficult. At least three attempts by its U.S. workers to organize have failed, mainly as a consequence of aggressive tactics by the company and weak protections for labor in the United States.

The National Labor Relations Board, a U.S. federal agency, has repeatedly called out Tesla and Musk for illegal or improper anti-union activities, such as interrogating employees, and disciplining or otherwise discriminating against workers because they support unions.

This year the carmaker fired more than 30 supporters of a nascent union at its facility in Buffalo, New York, just days after the organizing effort was announced.

Musk, the world’s richest man, has also been vocal about his opposition to unions and caused the ire of the labor relations agency when it directed him to delete a 2018 tweet that hinted Tesla employees would lose their stock options if they formed a union.

Still, the strikes by Swedish workers may embolden Tesla’s employees in Germany, where it has a large plant manufacturing electric vehicles and battery cells.

German unions have pressured the company to implement a collective bargaining agreement for its 11,000 workers at the factory near Berlin, according to Reuters.

IG Metall, a powerful German Union, says Tesla pays its workers less than other carmakers in Germany and gets rid of employees who are sick too often. More than 1,000 workers at the factory joined the union during a day of protest last month.

Earlier this year, Tesla lodged an application to double the production capacity of the plant — located about 30 kilometers from the German capital — to 1 million EVs.

If the expansion happens, the factory will overtake Volkswagen’s sprawling plant in the German city of Wolfsburg, stealing its crown as Europe’s biggest car factory.

(SD-Agencies)

Words to Learn

相关词汇

【惹恼】

rěnǎo

get under skin

become a source of irritation

【讯问】

txùnwèn

interrogate

ask questions of (someone) closely, aggressively, or formally

开始罢工近一个月后，特斯拉瑞典工厂的工人终于收到了老板马斯克的反馈，他一向反对工会组织。公司CEO埃隆•马斯克周四在自家的社交媒体平台X（其前身是推特）上说：“这也太疯狂了。”

马斯克发此感叹是因为瑞典邮政工人拒绝递送特斯拉车牌，出于同情他们加入了抵制特斯拉的行动，上月底开始瑞典机械师停止了特斯拉车的维保服务。

据美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）旗下的Expressen报道，大约 130名机械师10月份开始罢工，因为他们的雇主 —— 特斯拉的瑞典子公司 —— 拒绝承认他们的工会。

Expressen报道，罢工很快蔓延到码头工人，他们阻止特斯拉汽车在瑞典港口运输，然后蔓延到电工，他们停止维修汽车，后来其他工人也加入了。

发起首次罢工的瑞典IF Metall 会在其网站上说：“这关系到所有在特斯拉工作的工会会员是否能拿到高工资、养老金和足额保险。”

“我们已经和特斯拉谈判了很长时间。他们拒绝签署集体（谈判）协议，这种做法违反瑞典劳动力市场的基本原则。”

瑞典工人工会化程度很高，大约10名工人中有9人签了集体协议。

但事实证明，在特斯拉成立工会很难。特斯拉美国工厂的工人至少有三次组织工会的尝试都以失败告终，主要原因是特斯拉咄咄逼人，而且美国对劳工的保护薄弱。

美国联邦机构全国劳资关系委员会曾多次指责特斯拉和马斯克从事非法或不当的反工会活动，如讯问员工、因工人支持工会而对其进行纪律处分或有其他歧视行为。

今年，这家汽车制造商位于纽约州布法罗的工厂有30多名工人支持新成立的工会，在工会宣布成立几天之后这些工人就被解雇了。

世界首富马斯克一直公开反对工会，和工会素有积怨。

他2018 年曾发推文暗示如果特斯拉员工胆敢成立工会，他们将失去股票期权，后来工会要求他删帖。

瑞典工人的罢工可能会给特斯拉在德国的工人壮胆，他们在德国有一家生产电动汽车和电池的大型工厂。

据路透社报道，德国工会已向特斯拉施压，要求该公司为柏林附近工厂的 1.1 万名工人实行集体谈判协议。

德国实力雄厚的工会 IG Metall称，特斯拉支付给工人的工资低于德国其他汽车制造商，而且会解雇经常生病的员工。在上个月某天的抗议活动中，该工厂1000 多名工人加入了工会。

今年早些时候，特斯拉提出申请，请求将该工厂（距离德国首都约 30 公里）的电动车产能翻一番，达到100万辆。

如果扩产成功，特斯拉柏林厂将超越德国沃尔夫斯堡市的大众汽车工厂，成为欧洲最大的汽车厂。

(Translated by Debra)