The reason the prolonged strike is now being called off is that Tesla has bought out the union's striking members at the company, a total of about 80 people, which means the conflict can no longer have any impact.
Tesla has simply paid them to terminate their employment, says Veli-Pekka Säikkälä.
The strike began three years ago when the IF Metall union put Tesla mechanics on strike after negotiations over a collective agreement failed. When Tesla did not give in, the conflict took a turn for the worse with sympathy measures from, among others, the Transport union, which blocked the loading and unloading of Tesla cars.
“Improved conditions”
Has the strike been worth all the time?
Yes. It is clear that it is a failure - there is no collective agreement in place. But what has been achieved is that Tesla has actually improved employment conditions during the strike, so that employment conditions have come closer to collective agreements, says Säikkälä.
As an example, he mentions the introduction of part-time pensions and insurance packages. Despite the fact that a world-leading company in Sweden is now closing the door to the collective agreement norm, he does not see the strike break as a setback for collective agreements in general.
We have greater collective agreement coverage today in Sweden than when the strike began, says Säikkälä, who also emphasizes that employees have more arbitrary and insecure conditions without a collective agreement in place.
“Equal conditions”
Lise-Lotte Argulander, labor market expert at Företagarna, in turn appreciates that the strike has been called off.
"In Sweden there is freedom of contract - it is good that IF Metall seems to understand that and is ending a historically unnecessary union conflict without any winners. IF Metall's fight against Tesla has hit companies that have nothing to do with the conflict. Now the sympathy measures must end immediately," she writes in an email response to TT.
Maria Lantz, communications manager at Tesla Sweden, also welcomes the news of the canceled strike.
"Employment at Tesla includes all regular terms and conditions specified in Swedish laws and regulations, such as occupational pension, working hours and safe working conditions. Our agreements are equivalent to or better than those covered by a collective agreement," she writes in an email to TT.
