A district court in Sweden has ruled that it cannot force Swedish postal workers at PostNord to resume deliveries to Tesla.
Senior Judge Patrik Alm at the Solna District Court noted in his ruling that: (via NYT)
Parties in the labor market have the right to take action, and the state should not intervene.
The lawsuit came after PostNord workers ceased deliveries to Tesla facilities in solidarity with mechanics at Tesla service centres and dealerships who walked off the job in October 2023.
At the time of the strike, Tesla mechanics tried to force Tesla into talks with IF Metall to sign a collective agreement covering the 120 mechanics working at Tesla facilities. Over 90% of the country’s mechanics are covered by such a collective agreement, but Tesla has not entered into talks with the union since the walkout.
Since the strike, PostNord workers have continued to stop all postal service to Tesla facilities, including delivering new licence plates for Tesla vehicles.
Although Tesla found workarounds to other labour disruptions in the country, including shipping Tesla vehicles by truck instead of through Swedish ports after port workers refused to unload Tesla vehicles in the port, the company has been unable to find a workable solution to the postal disruptions.
The head of Seko, who represents the postal workers, said this after the ruling:
Now, it’s probably time for Tesla to stop fooling around and respect the Swedish collective agreement model. The fact that they spend so much time and energy trying to get around the game rules is just a signal that they have big problems.
Tesla has not provided a comment, but the company can appeal the decision to a higher court if they choose to do so.
