The majority of Tesla’s employees at Service Centers in Sweden do not support the IF Metall strike, data shows. The union has denied this information, without providing data to support its claim.
This is the second month since the Swedish trade union IF Metall launched a strike against Tesla. While the number of organizations fighting for union power in the region continues to grow, the strike still lacks the support of Tesla employees. Last month, several local media outlets already confirmed that company employees refused to take part in the strike. In addition, it became known that the union is offering the company employees more than 130% of their salary to join.
The strike is being carried out under the guise of so-called “sympathy” for Tesla employees working in the company’s service centers in Sweden. Despite multiple reports that the strike was not supported by Tesla employees, IF Metall said in late November that more than half of Tesla’s 130 service technicians at seven different locations were union members and only a minority had not gone on strike.
Since there are a large number of Tesla car owners in the country, they tried to sort out the situation. The Tesla Club in Sweden, which has more than 6,000 members, conducted its investigation to understand the extent of the problem within Tesla.
The company has 10 service centers in the country, which employ a total of 130 employees. Club members visited them and spoke with the employees directly. According to the information collected, of 130 Tesla employees, only 13 technicians joined the strike. Tesla Club in Sweden wrote:
“We have just over six thousand members in the Tesla Club in Sweden who own Tesla cars. Unfortunately, sometimes something breaks in their car and they have to go to a service center. We asked our members to ask the service technicians they meet, how many of their colleagues are on strike at that particular facility.”
The Tesla Club report in Sweden was shown to IF Metall by Carup. However, the union denies its accuracy.
“I saw this report. It is a very low figure,” said Jesper Pettersson, a spokesperson for IF Metall. However, it is noteworthy that the union has not once in seven weeks unveiled the number of Tesla employees who joined the strike.
The strike in Sweden began by IF Metall after Tesla refused to sign a collective agreement. The union argues that a collective agreement would guarantee employees better working conditions and higher wages. However, the company’s employees in Sweden reported that they believed their current working conditions and wages were superior to those of their previous jobs.
