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.
I love when conservatives incorrectly appropriate terms invented by liberals/progressives like a cargo cult. You should build some superchargers out of coconuts, that’ll definitely get you the approval you so desperately crave.
But to seriously address your point, of course it’s a protection racket, in that the union exists to protect their membership. Just like corporations exist to protect their investors. Just like the mafia existed to protect Italian immigrants who were being discriminated against. The issue with the mafia was never that they banded together to ensure the best possible outcomes for members; it was the use of violent, illegal, and antisocial actions to promote that cause (e.g. beating up rival workers and scabs, selling drugs and robbing stores for income, killing political and economic enemies, etc.)
The point of a union is to use all legal pathways to ensure the best possible outcome for union members. Period. That’s their job. They’re needed because the point of a corporation is to use all legal pathways to ensure the greatest possible returns for shareholders. This goal (of corporations) is often at odds with the needs of workers, and corporations have significant systemic advantages over individual workers - more capital to deploy, better legal representation, more amplification of their message, more ability to influence market wages, etc.
Most of the Tesla technicians working in Sweden belong to IF Metall. Most of those members voted to use the union to negotiate a CBA, and to then strike if those negotiations stall. Unions don’t just get to go in and decide to negotiate on behalf of workers who aren’t union membership. That’s not how any of this works.
Does that mean that every Tesla worker is for this union? Obviously not. Not all Tesla workers in Sweden belong to IF Metall, and the ones that don’t aren’t on strike. And it’s even possible that some IF Metall workers at Tesla aren’t in favor of striking, or that there are technicians working for Tesla that aren’t IF Metall members who don’t want a CBA or a strike. But unfortunately for them, the way representative democratic organizations like unions work is that a single individual or small group can’t override the will of the majority.
And as a side note, it’s telling that here in the US where our unions have largely been beaten and left for dead, all of the cases of individuals “standing up for their rights to not join a union” have been very narrowly made to ensure that the freerider assholes who don’t want to be in a union still benefit from union-negotiated collective bargaining agreements. All of our “right to work” laws make it explicitly illegal to provide lower pay or benefits to non-members not involved in the CBA. So really, it’s just a bunch of cheap assholes who want the benefits without paying the price.
I love when conservatives incorrectly appropriate terms invented by liberals/progressives like a cargo cult. You should build some superchargers out of coconuts, that’ll definitely get you the approval you so desperately crave.
But to seriously address your point, of course it’s a protection racket, in that the union exists to protect their membership. Just like corporations exist to protect their investors. Just like the mafia existed to protect Italian immigrants who were being discriminated against. The issue with the mafia was never that they banded together to ensure the best possible outcomes for members; it was the use of violent, illegal, and antisocial actions to promote that cause (e.g. beating up rival workers and scabs, selling drugs and robbing stores for income, killing political and economic enemies, etc.)
The point of a union is to use all legal pathways to ensure the best possible outcome for union members. Period. That’s their job. They’re needed because the point of a corporation is to use all legal pathways to ensure the greatest possible returns for shareholders. This goal (of corporations) is often at odds with the needs of workers, and corporations have significant systemic advantages over individual workers - more capital to deploy, better legal representation, more amplification of their message, more ability to influence market wages, etc.
Most of the Tesla technicians working in Sweden belong to IF Metall. Most of those members voted to use the union to negotiate a CBA, and to then strike if those negotiations stall. Unions don’t just get to go in and decide to negotiate on behalf of workers who aren’t union membership. That’s not how any of this works.
Does that mean that every Tesla worker is for this union? Obviously not. Not all Tesla workers in Sweden belong to IF Metall, and the ones that don’t aren’t on strike. And it’s even possible that some IF Metall workers at Tesla aren’t in favor of striking, or that there are technicians working for Tesla that aren’t IF Metall members who don’t want a CBA or a strike. But unfortunately for them, the way representative democratic organizations like unions work is that a single individual or small group can’t override the will of the majority.
And as a side note, it’s telling that here in the US where our unions have largely been beaten and left for dead, all of the cases of individuals “standing up for their rights to not join a union” have been very narrowly made to ensure that the freerider assholes who don’t want to be in a union still benefit from union-negotiated collective bargaining agreements. All of our “right to work” laws make it explicitly illegal to provide lower pay or benefits to non-members not involved in the CBA. So really, it’s just a bunch of cheap assholes who want the benefits without paying the price.