Strike Against Tesla Comes to an End

The decision is commented on by Veli-Pekka Säikkälä, Collective Bargaining Secretary at the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO).

– IF Metall faced a company led by the world's richest man, who also harbors hostility toward trade unions and the way we do things in Sweden. Tesla has enormous financial resources and has used them, among other things, to buy out striking workers. That is unprecedented.

– Without workers on strike, there is no strike. The fact that a collective agreement is not in place is a failure, but it is the union's responsibility to take on these kinds of battles. We do not regret it. The trade union movement must be willing to fight such struggles, even when there is a risk of not achieving the desired outcome.

– Tesla has used methods to break the strike that we have not seen in Sweden for nearly 100 years. The company flew in strikebreakers and played cat-and-mouse games with industrial action directed at postal services. The scale of buying out striking workers is also unique and has come at a significant cost to the company.

– Swedish trade unions will continue to negotiate collective agreements, and we are prepared to use strike action when necessary. During the Tesla dispute, Swedish unions signed thousands of collective agreements, and collective agreement coverage in Sweden is higher today than when the conflict began.

– The dispute has also demonstrated the massive public support for the Swedish model. We emerge stronger knowing that people in Sweden have stood behind us. The conflict has also increased public awareness of the importance of collective agreements and has, in that sense, been more successful than any advertising campaign could have been. We will now analyze this conflict and learn what we could have done differently to achieve a different outcome.