Service centre union dispute escalates in Sweden where undelivered licence plates are keeping new Teslas off the roads
Tesla has filed a lawsuit against the Swedish Transport Agency as striking workers in the Scandinavian country halted the delivery of licence plates of new vehicles manufactured by the Texas-based automaker, Sweden’s Dagens Industri reported on Monday.
A court in Sweden ruled yesterday (November 29) the country’s transport authority must find a way to get licence plates to Tesla that are being blocked by postal workers, the Aftonbladet newspaper reported.
The decision comes hours after the US electric car maker sued the agency and state-run PostNord because postal workers had stopped delivering plates for its new cars.
PostNord workers on November 20 joined industrial action aimed at forcing Tesla to sign a collective bargain agreement for mechanics in Sweden, and the transport agency refused to deliver the plates by other means, saying it was contractually bound to use PostNord.
According to Euronews Mikael Andersson, a press spokesman for the agency, said the lawsuit was filed early morning “so we have not seen it yet.”
“We need to hear their reasoning first before we can give any further comment,” Andersson told public broadcaster SVT.
Leading business paper Dagens Industri reported that Tesla — which is non-unionised globally — was suing the government agency because not accessing the registration plates “constitutes an unlawful discriminatory attack directed at Tesla.”
The root of the problem began on October 27, when 130 members of the powerful metalworkers’ union IF Metall walked out at seven workshops across the country where the popular electric cars are serviced, demanding that the carmaker sign a collective bargaining agreement, which most employees in Sweden have. Tesla has no manufacturing plant in Sweden, but has several service centres.
Gabriella Lavecchia, president of Seko, emphasised in a statement recently that Tesla’s non-compliance with prevailing labour regulations in Sweden is an attempt to gain a competitive advantage by offering workers substandard wages and conditions compared to those stipulated in a collective agreement.
The Swedish labour market model relies heavily on sector-specific collective agreements, covering nearly 90% of the country’s workforce and ensuring minimum wages and acceptable working conditions.
Despite being union members, Tesla workers find themselves excluded from sectoral collective agreements due to the company’s refusal to sign such agreements. With 127,000 employees worldwide, Tesla has consistently rejected calls for unionisation.
