Swedish Tesla workers say they’re still very much on strike — despite Elon Musk’s claims to the contrary.
On Monday, in a conversation steamed live on X, Musk claimed: “Things are in reasonably good shape in Sweden.” Referring to a wave of strikes and sympathy action across the region, the Tesla CEO said, “the storm has passed on that front.”
Swedish workers don’t quite agree with Musk’s comments.
Jesper Pettersson, a spokesperson for the trade union IF Metall, which is leading the industrial action against Tesla, told Reuters the strike was “very much ongoing.”
He told the news agency that the union was considering ramping up the disruptive action, which began in late October.
Pettersson said Tesla wanted “to make an impression that business is as usual for them, but we know — and they know — that that’s not entirely true.”
The Swedish workers want to force a collective agreement on Tesla, which would allow workers to negotiate things like compensation.
Collective agreements are commonplace in the country, and relationships between unions and companies are also relatively harmonious.
A sense of fairness is at the heart of the disputes, which is why collective agreements play such a big role; they aim to keep compensation fair.
After the IF Metall union walked out last year, several other unions, including labor groups in nearby countries like Denmark, Norway, and Finland, joined in solidarity.
The Swedish postal service successfully halted deliveries of new license plates for Teslas, while Danish dockworkers refused to unload the EVs.
Musk publicly lashed out at the disruptive workers in November, calling the strikes “insane.”
IF Metall and representatives for Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.
