Tesla remains a dominant force in Sweden’s auto market despite a unionization battle that has been dragging on for almost a year now.
For almost a year now, Tesla service workers in Sweden have been on strike, demanding inclusion in a collective agreement.
Tesla has historically opposed unions and successfully resisted unionization at its manufacturing facilities. Initially, this strike in Sweden seemed manageable, involving only a few dozen workers. However, Tesla underestimated the strength of solidarity among Swedish workers.
Several other unions in the country, including port workers, electricians, and cleaning services that work with Tesla, have refused to cooperate with the company in support of the strike.
Elon Musk reportedly told Tesla’s Swedish employees that they are not permitted to sign a collective agreement with a union, a hardline stance that has stalled negotiations. This approach has triggered even more unions to take action, with unions in Denmark and Norway joining in a boycott of Tesla until the company agrees to a collective agreement with its service workers.
With no end of the conflict in sight, Tesla had to find workarounds, like using more trucks and trains as port workers refused to unload their vehicles and flying in service workers from other countries.
Despite these difficulties and a hit on its reputation for its strong stance against unions, Tesla is still doing very well in terms of car deliveries in Sweden.
According to the latest data from Mobility Sweden statistics, Tesla delivered 16,478 cars in Sweden during the first nine months of the year. This represents a 1% increase over the same period of 2023 – right before the strike started.
The company now holds an impressive 8.5% market share in the country in 2024 up from 7.8% a year prior.
But troubles are not over.
Yesterday, 40 members of another union working for the city of Gothenburg’s power company announced that they would stop servicing Tesla’s charging stations as part of a boycott in support of the Tesla service strike.
Tesla still prefers managing these problems one by one rather than let unions get a foot into the door of its operations.