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Slate Technology

What Next TBD: Tesla vs. the Swedes

Slate Technology

Slate

Society & Culture, Technology, History

4.6636 Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In late October, Tesla mechanics in Sweden began to strike after the company refused to sign a collective agreement. This week, the country's other major unions joined in the fight as well.  Can Sweden’s robust labor culture force Tesla to make concessions?  Guest: Melissa Eddy, Berlin correspondent for the New York Times.  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Do people love the Vauxal Corsa as much as we do?

0:03.0

Yes, of Coursa.

0:05.0

Don't just take our word for it.

0:07.0

Here's what Julie had to say in her FIFO review.

0:09.0

I love the style and colour too.

0:11.0

Very pleased and telling everybody about it.

0:14.0

Join Julie and discover why the Vauxal Corsa is the UK's best-selling small card today.

0:19.0

Visit your local Vauxhall retailer to book your

0:21.9

test drive or search Corsa now. For bestselling claim verification, visit voxel.com.uk.

0:31.1

I wonder if you could tell me, like, if you or I went from port to port in Sweden this week,

0:43.7

what would we see?

0:45.3

So at four of the biggest ports in Sweden, what you would see are dock workers unloading cars as they normally would and other cargo as it comes into port.

1:01.6

That's Melissa Eddie, a reporter for the New York Times, who covers business in Northern Europe.

1:07.6

But what would be absent are any cars produced by Tesla? And that's because the dock

1:14.8

workers union in Sweden has decided to support a strike of Tesla mechanics by refusing to

1:23.8

unload any Tesla vehicles that come into Sweden at any of the four major ports.

1:29.4

You might even catch some kind of a protest action going on outside of one or two of the other ports,

1:36.6

but for the most part, it would look like business as usual, but it's not.

1:44.2

It's not because Tesla and the Swedish union that represents mechanics are fighting over a

1:51.1

collective bargaining agreement. Since the UAW won concessions from the Big Three automakers,

1:57.4

unions are riding high, and many have their sights set on unionizing Tesla, which

2:03.1

has been notoriously hostile toward organized labor. Today on the show, could mechanics in

...

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