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Tesla vs. Unions

As expected, Tesla appealed and insists on having the courts force PostNord to deliver.

I still have concerns regarding Tesla’s description of the situation, some things (IMHO) seem to cross the line between “technically correct” and “incorrect”. There are also plenty of things Tesla could do to mitigate the damages they claim to suffer, yet they don’t (or worse, they do and just omitted that to make the damages sound more severe in the filing). And I still think that Tesla should have gone to the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority prior to going to the courts.

Snickered at the part where Tesla basically said that “PostNord can’t claim force majeure since the contracts are between PostNord and the senders, not between PostNord and Tesla!”…

Way above my pay grade. My gut feeling however is that forcing PostNord to circumvent the strike is way more problematic than getting the Transport Agency to find an alternative way of supplying license plates to Tesla. ....

...The latter in that case should be about finding a legally acceptable way of fulfilling the agency’s task rather than having Tesla impose a specific solution.
But that is not what the egregious Elon Musk is all about.

Rather, it is about him getting his own way because that is what he has decided he wants.

Psychologically, he cannot handle being challenged, - he sees it as an affront - and thus, nuance, compromise, wit, and subtlety - above all, a desire to reach a mutually satisfactory solution - are all strange words (and concepts) to him.
 
Merry Christmas Elon!

The Swedish Transport Workers' Union stops all waste management at Tesla's workshops

IF Metall has asked the Swedish Transport Workers' Union for further support in the conflict with Tesla. We therefore announce a sympathy action in the form of a blockade against all handling of waste and garbage at Tesla's workshops in Sweden.

The sympathy action includes a blockade against all kinds of waste management at Tesla's workshops in Sweden. The blockade will enter into force on Sunday, December 24 at 00.01 p.m., unless IF Metall and TM Sweden (Tesla Sweden) have signed a collective agreement before then.

"This type of sympathy action is very rare. We are using it now to protect the job security of having a collective agreements and the Swedish labor market model. Tesla cannot ignore the norm on the Swedish labor market," says Tommy Wreeth, President of the Swedish Transport Workers' Union.

The sympathy measure is valid until IF Metall and TM Sweden AB have reached a collective agreement, or when the Swedish Transport Workers' Union withdraws the sympathy measure in whole or in part. Employers who try to evade the blockade will be subject to extensive industrial action after notice.
 
The Swedish Transport Agency’s appeal was initially successful, the lower court’s interim decision has been put on hold and the Court of Appeal is currently waiting for Tesla to respond before making a ruling.

Update: The Court of Appeal practically nuked the lower court’s questionable escape-velocity interim decision from orbit (the only way to be sure) and ordered a do-over due to it incorrectly making the decision without letting the Transport Agency comment as well as it trying to fine the agency completely disregarding a law saying that it just ain’t possible to do that.

Another nicely written and easy to follow decision, really appreciate that regardless of the outcome. The court, in no uncertain terms, explained that it has not ruled on the merits of the case or anything like that (despite clearly having opinions), just that the interim decision is back to square one. Despite this, it notably added a nudge-nudge paragraph expressing doubts regarding this being the right avenue to go down, strongly suggesting that these courts can’t do jack shit about Tesla’s complaint… Interesting.
 
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There are also plenty of things Tesla could do to mitigate the damages they claim to suffer, yet they don’t (or worse, they do and just omitted that to make the damages sound more severe in the filing).

Yep. As expected: Bragging about workarounds…

 
Well well well, Tesla is hiring!

Tesla is seeking to hire a government affairs specialist in Sweden to help resolve escalating strikes against the US carmaker in the Nordic countries.
The company is looking for someone with “a proven track record of getting regulatory changes made in the Nordics” to be based in Stockholm or Oslo, according to a posting on its careers site.

…and has no global policy against organized labour. Yeah, right.

Norway’s governing Labour party summoned Tesla to parliament last week to answer questions about the affair. In his reply to the party, Tesla’s Norwegian boss Axel Tangen said the company followed all Norwegian laws, including on the labour market, Norwegian media reported.
“Tesla has no form of global policy against organised labour,” Tangen added. His comments stand in contrast with chief executive Elon Musk’s recent statement that “I disagree with the idea of unions”.

Edit/Note: Technically the dude said that Tesla does not have a global policy against workers organizing themselves, not that Tesla does not have a global policy against the company signing collective agreements… Well duh, Financially Times, the statement was just basically “No we don’t have an official policy that violates Norwegian law”.


Looking at the actual posting on the careers site, strikes are not explicitly mentioned but Financial Times’ interpretation seems reasonable, to ”develop policy positions and achieving positive change in the five countries to support Tesla’s mission” sure could mean just that.

  • Tracking and analyzing relevant legislation and policy proposals in the Nordics that impact electric vehicles, autonomous driving, and electric vehicle charging
  • Working with European and global Tesla teams to develop policy positions and achieving positive change in the five countries to support Tesla’s mission
  • Building coalitions within the sustainable transportation and energy communities
  • Working with other Tesla teams like sales, charging, legal, compliance, homologation product development and engineering, to ensure the best outcomes

https://www.tesla.com/sv_SE/careers...d-business-development-manager-nordics-214707
 
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Well well well, Tesla is hiring!



…and has no global policy against organized labour. Yeah, right.



Edit/Note: Technically the dude said that Tesla does not have a global policy against workers organizing themselves, not that Tesla does not have a global policy against the company signing collective agreements… Well duh, Financially Times, the statement was just basically “No we don’t have an official policy that violates Norwegian law”.


Looking at the actual posting on the careers site, strikes are not explicitly mentioned but Financial Times’ interpretation seems reasonable, to ”develop policy positions and achieving positive change in the five countries to support Tesla’s mission” sure could mean just that.



https://www.tesla.com/sv_SE/careers...d-business-development-manager-nordics-214707
Mogels, ”Captains of Industry”, Tycoons, don’t like being told “No“, prefer complete dominance and say over “their baby”. What importance are the little cogs? The reply: they make your idea happen and we have lives too. 🤔
 
Yep. As expected: Bragging about workarounds…



lol

PostNord must have been reading my posts, the response to Tesla’s appeal includes mentioning that Tesla has a workaround for the license plate problem, and that there are obvious ways to work around the other problems too.

I particularly like PostNord spelling out the obvious, that the (legal) union actions are supposed to cause the company refusing to get a collective agreement financial damage. 😂

Lots of points and counterpoints to process. Can’t wait to read the Court of Appeals’ decision to see what they make of it. Pretty sure Tesla won’t like it.
 
But that is not what the egregious Elon Musk is all about.

Rather, it is about him getting his own way because that is what he has decided he wants.

Psychologically, he cannot handle being challenged, - he sees it as an affront - and thus, nuance, compromise, wit, and subtlety - above all, a desire to reach a mutually satisfactory solution - are all strange words (and concepts) to him.
Ego…egomaniac.
 
In related news, the Court of Appeals accepted Tesla’s appeal of not getting an interim decision against PostNord.

Tesla has until the 18th to make amendments to their appeal if they want to. That’s Monday. Today’s Friday. Wonder if Tesla’s lawyers charge extra for working weekends…

I can’t really see Tesla getting what it asked for. Were I a betting hog, I would bet on updated legal reasoning as to why Tesla’s demands were rejected. By this time next week we will most likely know if I would have won that bet.

Just me dreaming: The court is giving Tesla one last opportunity to fix the lies about the damages it claims. 😆
 
IF Metall has reported Tesla to the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection for having cameras potentially recording (audio and video) picketers. There are multiple potential violations. The cameras are directed so that public space is covered and for quite some time there were no signs informing about the cameras and when the signs finally appeared they did not contain all required information, and the posted phone number only led to a ten year old automated message about the Eyjafjallajökull eruption…

As for the blocked delivery of license plates, it is now widely reported that Tesla has completely worked around that problem. Can’t wait to see if Tesla updated their lawsuits accordingly! 😆
 
Weirdly quiet about the ongoing appeal (Tesla vs. PostNord). No idea if Tesla filed anything before the Monday deadline and no idea when the court will make a ruling.

In the other lawsuit (Tesla vs. The Swedish Transport Agency) the small town court will, per the Court of Appeals’ friendly suggestion, address the question of whether or not it can even make a ruling on the matter. The parties have until December 28 to comment. Poor rich lawyers.

IF Metall has begun to kick out strikebreaking members on a case by case basis. Unless one has a darn good reason, like a foreigner here on a work permit, bye-bye!

In other news, Tesla and IF Metall have reportedly reopened their lines of communications, both directly and through the mediator. That’s something at least, although they won’t reveal what they are talking about and Tesla still does not want to be covered by any collective agreement…
 
Weirdly quiet about the ongoing appeal (Tesla vs. PostNord). No idea if Tesla filed anything before the Monday deadline and no idea when the court will make a ruling.

Timing is everything, the Court of Appeals rejected Tesla’s appeal less than 12 hours after I submitted that post. 😆

The court did what it had to do, no more. Tesla failed to make a strong enough case that PostNord can overcome the legal and practical hurdles preventing the company to do what Tesla asks for and that the court can actually order PostNord to do so. The court did not bother with the remaining requisites after this finding. Too bad, would have been an interesting read. Fiscally responsible though, plenty enough with one failed requisite to reject the appeal, no need to waste time on the other ones. Let’s just say the court is not worried about Supreme Court-proofing the decision by covering multiple angles.

No idea how much Tesla wasted on lawyers but PostNord asked for (and was awarded) around $30500 for their legal costs (just for the appeal).
 
The union, IF Metall, has announced a temporary exemption. Around 30 workshops (not Tesla’s own) will be allowed to repair Teslas from February 19 through April 30.

Edit: According to the union there are about 100-200 cars that are damaged enough to be covered by the exemption.

Other than that pretty quiet. Some non-exciting court filings but no decisions. Tesla busy working around the blockades. Elon fanbois busy badmouthing unions and investigating family relationships of the “opposition”. The right-wing “independent” think tanks and business federations busy calling for sympathy actions to be outlawed. The usual.

Funny how they want to make it illegal for unions to get outside help but not for themselves to bring in strikebreakers. 😋
 
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sympathy actions to be outlawed. The usual.

I resided in the Right-To-Work (State-of) VA for 22 years, and it always rankled me that there was such adamant b-collar support for policies that effectively neutered these worker's own empowerment.

Not really what led me to exit the State, but--looking-back--not something that truly magnetized me.

I used to admire Elon's acumen, but when he swiped all those peas&carrots off his highchair during Teh Covid, it was the end of our mono-amorous affair.
 
I resided in the Right-To-Work (State-of) VA for 22 years, and it always rankled me that there was such adamant b-collar support for policies that effectively neutered these worker's own empowerment.

Not really what led me to exit the State, but--looking-back--not something that truly magnetized me.

I used to admire Elon's acumen, but when he swiped all those peas&carrots off his highchair during Teh Covid, it was the end of our mono-amorous affair.
The name “right-to-work” is very deceptive. I’m not sure who thought of it, but it’s pretty insidious. Do people in states without right-to-work states not have jobs?
 
The name “right-to-work” is very deceptive. I’m not sure who thought of it, but it’s pretty insidious. Do people in states without right-to-work states not have jobs?

Speaking of deceptive words, the Swedish word for employee is basically “work taker” and for employer “work giver”, like it is some kind of charity going on. The political left is trying to get the more honest “work seller” and “work buyer” going.
 
The name “right-to-work” is very deceptive. I’m not sure who thought of it, but it’s pretty insidious. Do people in states without right-to-work states not have jobs?
Unionists call it by its rightful name: the right-to-work-for-less. Of course its history was an outright appeal to bigotry, warning white workers that Black workers would be paid equal to them with unions.
 
Unionists call it by its rightful name: the right-to-work-for-less. Of course its history was an outright appeal to bigotry, warning white workers that Black workers would be paid equal to them with unions.

Coercive attrition of existing ideas and principals seems to be a theme, these days.

Abject bigots I could (possibly) forgive, but selective bigots . . . *urhm, no*

Love Pumbaa's take, that employment implies that there is "some kind of charity going on."

I live&reside in the Hood, and it has become more-and-more obvious to me over the years that physical slavery has been replaced by economic slavery.

It has also become more-and-more obvious to me that the Corporate Robber-Barons will continue to refuse to detach their claws from that which enables them to retain such a position.
 
Speaking of deceptive words, the Swedish word for employee is basically “work taker” and for employer “work giver”, like it is some kind of charity going on. The political left is trying to get the more honest “work seller” and “work buyer” going.
Almost mirror translation in my native language too, where worker is called a "work volunteer", emphasizing that it is a choice.

I live&reside in the Hood, and it has become more-and-more obvious to me over the years that physical slavery has been replaced by economic slavery.
Oh yes. Electric Messiah had been funny like that because a decade ago he wanted to save us from population collapse through basic universal income and robots and AI taking over manual labor to improve Quality of Life. Now he wants us to impregnate as many women as we can, and "work" 100 hours a week so those kids can raise themselves.

I'll add one thing just about right wing bigotry. If Trumpty Dumbty or Electric Messiah were Black, they'd be called thugs. In contrast, I've never ever ever heard the "nuclear family is the best western invention" people admit that Obama is a true role model of the modern father and husband.
 
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