Tesla has had a long history with Swedish Unions. IF Metall, a Swedish Metalworkers Union, has been involved in a labor dispute against Tesla for over a year now, with the strike beginning back in October 2023.
The core issue lies in Tesla’s refusal to sign a collective bargaining agreement with IF Metall. In Sweden, these are the norm. However, Tesla compensates its workers well, and it seems that many of its employees in Sweden don’t even want to sign the collective agreement—they would be losing out on a lot. Employees have banded together to wear vests that say “Tack, det ӓr bra” - “Thanks, I’m good” in response to the unionization efforts.
Tesla does not have any unions in any of its facilities across the world - and signing one in Sweden would be a massive change. United Autoworkers in the US (UAW) has also been working towards establishing an autoworkers union in Tesla, but it has never really taken off.
Previous Impacts
The strike originally targeted just Tesla’s service centers but quickly grew beyond that. IF Metall expanded the strike to include painters, suppliers, electricians, postal workers, and many other unionized bodies within Sweden. Hydro Extrusions, a notable Tesla supplier, lost its primary contract with Tesla due to the strike in early 2024.
Sympathy strikes have also impacted the mailing of registrations and license plates for new Tesla owners, which led to a lawsuit against IF Metall and other unions involved.
Superchargers Unpowered
Now, the latest impact of the strike has left 100 Tesla Supercharger stalls across six different sites unpowered. All these sites have been permitted, built, and fully set up. Now, the last step is to just power them on.
This step lies in the hands of one of the unions working for local electricity companies - who are conducting sympathy strikes against Tesla. Max de Zegher, Tesla’s Director of Charging, previously commented that not enabling these Supercharger stations will leave EV drivers struggling over the Holiday period.
And that prediction has come true. Nicklas, a Swede who has been covering the dispute on X, recorded a video of the few Supercharger stations that are working - where Tesla vehicles are lined up waiting to charge.
Teslas (mostly) in the middle of 🇸🇪Sweden waiting in line at a Superchargerstation in Malung.
— Nicklas 🇸🇪🚗T🐂📈♻️🚀 (@NicklasNilsso14) January 5, 2025
Can you count how many there are in line?
Because of IF Metall, Tesla can’t connect new stations to the grid.
Crazy, isn’t it!@MdeZegher pic.twitter.com/86XFMUKBSS
Max commented again on the situation, pointing out that it's not just Tesla drivers suffering - this impacts other EV drivers in Sweden as well. Tesla’s Supercharger network in Europe uses the CCS2 standard and is open to other electric vehicles as well.
Tesla vehicles and other EVs are now either lined up and waiting for long charge queues or being diverted to third-party sites, many of whom are unable to keep up with the Holiday travel impacts and whose uptimes are nowhere near the 99.99% availability that the Supercharger network provides.
We’re hoping to see a positive resolution to this strike, as it seems the employees of Tesla want no part of the union, but the union wishes to insert themselves into the equation anyway.
