Tesla faces new blockade in Sweden as IF Metall escalates dispute

One month after the Swedish Meditation Institute threw in the towel on Tesla and IF Metall’s conflict, the labor union has announced a new industrial action aimed at disrupting the electric vehicle maker’s operations in the country. 

Potential Tesla disruptions

The latest news involves a total work stoppage by Linde Material Handling, one of Sweden’s largest forklift companies, which services industrial clients nationwide. The action takes effect October 15 and will remain in place until Tesla signs a collective agreement, as noted in a Dagens Arbete (DA) report.

The stoppage will halt all forklift-related work Linde performs for Tesla’s local subsidiary, TM Sweden, including maintenance, repair, and service of trucks used across its facilities. Simon Petersson, IF Metall’s contract secretary, shared described the union’s latest effort in a comment to the publication.

“We know that Tesla has trucks in several locations and that they are in need of service, maintenance and repair. We are stopping that now. For Linde, this is not a big deal. They service trucks for a lot of companies and Tesla is a small player in their portfolio,” Petersson noted.

Not a sure strategy

Whether IF Metall’s latest effort will succeed against Tesla remains to be seen, especially since the electric vehicle maker has been pretty firm in its stance that its employees do not need a collective agreement. Still, the IF Metall contract secretary stated that Linde’s strike against Tesla should make it more difficult for the electric vehicle maker to operate its business in Sweden. 

“It remains to be seen. But as I have said before, it is about many small streams. This stops everything Linde does for Tesla. So not only with them, but regardless of where the work takes place. So if Tesla has problems with a truck, they will not have it repaired or serviced,” Petersson stated.

Following the decision of the Swedish Meditation Institute to end the negotiations between IF Metall and Tesla early last month, the union noted that it would still try to pressure the EV maker to sign a collective agreement. Since then, the Electricians union, as well as the postmen’s unions Seko and ST have continued to initiate blockades against Tesla Sweden.

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