Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday it was “crazy” that postal workers’ support for the electric car maker’s strike in Sweden was preventing the delivery of license plates for new vehicles.
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Postal sector employees began stopping deliveries to Tesla sites and workshops on Monday in support of the metal workers’ union IF Metall’s strike against the manufacturer’s refusal to enter into a collective agreement on wages.
According to daily Dagens Industri, this decision could prevent new Teslas from hitting the road, as license plates issued by the Swedish Transport Agency are only delivered by the Postnord postal group.
When asked by a user on
The new license plates will be sent by Postnord, Mikael Andersson, head of press relations at the Transport Agency, confirmed in an email to AFP.
The agency is bound by a contract between the postal company and Swedish government authorities, he said.
In addition to IF Mettall, nine other unions have announced solidarity measures towards Tesla employees, including the construction union, which announced that it would stop maintenance work at Tesla sites from November 28th.
Collective agreements negotiated on a sector-by-sector basis form the basis of the Swedish labor market model. They cover almost 90% of all Swedish workers and guarantee them minimum wages and working conditions.
Despite being unionized, Tesla workers do not benefit from industry-specific collective bargaining agreements because their company has not signed the collective bargaining agreement.
The American electric car specialist has always rejected calls for unionization of its 127,000 employees worldwide.
According to several Swedish media outlets, this strike movement has so far had limited impact and IF Metall has accused the car manufacturer of trying to break the movement.
Tesla has also found other delivery routes, particularly road transport.