Tesla has filed a lawsuit against the Swedish government's Transport Agency over a workers' strike that has blocked the U.S. auto maker's requests for license plates for new vehicles, business daily Dagens Industri reported on Monday.
Tesla should just sign a CBA or pull out of Sweden if they don’t want to be burdened by the unions there. It’s not worth the bad press. Tesla probably has some internal policy of not giving in to unions because they’ve seen how the American unions have crippled GM, Ford, and Chrysler over the past several decades, and even though Swedish unions are different than American unions, they’re still unions.
US unions didn’t ‘cripple’ US car companies, they just have to treat workers decently. It’s a weird US management obsession that they should be allowed to fire people with no notice or reason, underpay, have unsafe working conditions, etc., and workers should just accept those terrible terms.
I wonder why foreign automakers with great industrial relations with their unions (aka the Germans) always choose to build their U.S. factories in the non-unionized South? When’s the last time a foreign automaker chose to open their U.S. plant in a strong union state?
Honda I know isn’t union, and it’s because Honda gives their workers similar treatment to union shops. Management got integrity or something. Every so often the unions go in and test the waters, the Honda workers say no need, we’re already treated well, and the union goes away.
Unions mostly exist as a response to shitty management. That and as a hiring hall, but that concept doesn’t apply to factory work. Construction contract work is where that is useful.
Tesla should just sign a CBA or pull out of Sweden if they don’t want to be burdened by the unions there. It’s not worth the bad press. Tesla probably has some internal policy of not giving in to unions because they’ve seen how the American unions have crippled GM, Ford, and Chrysler over the past several decades, and even though Swedish unions are different than American unions, they’re still unions.
Tesla needs to read the room, this is not going to fly in Sweden.
Update: it did fly in Sweden
Yep. Telsa is getting its plates, and thats all that they care about.
Oh… and also not signing Any CBA. There’s that too.
US unions didn’t ‘cripple’ US car companies, they just have to treat workers decently. It’s a weird US management obsession that they should be allowed to fire people with no notice or reason, underpay, have unsafe working conditions, etc., and workers should just accept those terrible terms.
all international automakers who are not unionized in the us are unionized nearly everywhere else they have factories.
it’s almost like it’s not about the unions at all …
I wonder why foreign automakers with great industrial relations with their unions (aka the Germans) always choose to build their U.S. factories in the non-unionized South? When’s the last time a foreign automaker chose to open their U.S. plant in a strong union state?
honest question: are there any non-big-3 us factories that are unionized?
None that I know of. Way back in the 70’s WV opened a union factory in Pennsylvania. It was infamously bad.
Honda I know isn’t union, and it’s because Honda gives their workers similar treatment to union shops. Management got integrity or something. Every so often the unions go in and test the waters, the Honda workers say no need, we’re already treated well, and the union goes away.
Unions mostly exist as a response to shitty management. That and as a hiring hall, but that concept doesn’t apply to factory work. Construction contract work is where that is useful.
You mean like how your father should have pulled out?