Tesla

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Tesla is a very special company.

Elon Musk is a grifter and not a self-made millionaire. He takes other people's ideas and uses them for his own benefit.

Musk could end world hunger and still remain extremely wealthy. Apart from that being true, Musk has stated that he would do it if the United Nations could prove that it were possible; they did prove that Musk could, alone, end world hunger. He chose to not end world hunger, thus resulting in countless deaths.

With that in mind, let's go into some of the problems with Tesla. For more information about what Musk has done, don't miss #Some useful links.

Info

Because I lack time to update the list below, please instead see my Tesla news collection, where I'm constantly adding Tesla- and Elon Musk-related news. In other words, the list below is not updated often.

These chronological links are mainly related to how Tesla are attempting to break up strikes and how they treat workers in Sweden. Yes, in the year 2023. Capitalism at its peak, kind of, before it disembowels itself.

Table of contents

2023-10-30: Tesla brought strike-breakers by taxi

The strike was escalated by Monday: 'Tesla brought people here'

'Tesla has brought people here. There are strikebreakers working inside the premises right now. But we don't know who they are and where they came from', says Carola Andersson, chairman of IF Metall in Umeå.

Strike guards in Örebro also noted a taxi that on Monday morning dropped off at least one person outside the Tesla workshop in the city.

2023-11-04: Stunden är kommen för Tesla och Klarna

Stunden är kommen för Tesla och Klarna

Tesla refuses to sign a collective agreement. Therefore, the trade union IF Metall started a strike on 27 November. What is happening now is being called a decisive battle for the Swedish trade union movement.

IF Metall's strike against Tesla's Swedish subsidiary TM Sweden has become world news. It is the first time that the anti-union company has faced union industrial action. This means that the conflict is of great principle importance. For both parties and for the future labor market.
According to the international cooperation body for industrial unions in 140 countries, IndustriALL, IF Metall is the first union in the world to issue a strike notice against the global electric car giant.

According to Dagens Arena, Tesla's response has been to refer to a group policy from the head office in the USA not to sign collective agreements anywhere in the world. A response that has caused IF Metall to extend its notice to also include workshops that repair and service Tesla vehicles.

The next stage in the conflict begins on November 3. Then 470 employees will be subject to a blockade which means that IF Metall's members at workshops in 17 Swedish locations will not handle Tesla cars.

The Transport union has also notified to stop all loading and unloading of Tesla cars in the ports from 7 November, as a sympathy measure to support IF Metall.

2023-11-06: Tesla reroute deliveries to harbours

Biljätten Tesla uppges runda möjlig blockad – ställer om transporter

Tesla rather deliver cars to Sweden via other means than the harbours than allow employees to have a decent work life.

Elon Musk really handles Tesla as well as he's handled Twitter.

2023-11-07

The strike against Tesla is expanding

Nu utvidgas strejken mot Tesla

IF Metall have tried to negotiate strike deals with Tesla for years. Another union, Transport, are now joining the strike.

Tesla Model X Catches Fire After Becoming Fully Submerged In Water

Musk often says Teslas can be like boats for a while, but this video shows you should not mix water and a Tesla.

2023-11-09: Transport: Tesla try to circumvent harbour blockades

Transport: Tesla försöker kringgå blockaden i hamnarna

The Transport union claims that the electric car manufacturer Tesla is trying to circumvent the blockade in the ports. An example is that around 150 Tesla cars were transported on a regular ferry, according to the union.

So far, Tesla have tried to inject scabs into an ongoing strike and to fake their broken cars into Sweden. I can't even say 'nice tries'; this is yet another sign of how capitalism doesn't work. Money can't win over basic workers rights.

2023-11-13: IF Metal raises Tesla strike payouts to 130 per cent of salary, adds 'our payout chest will last around 500 years at this rate'

IF Metall: “Strejk­kassan räcker i 500 år”

What a flex: not only can IF Metal truly be a worker's ally, but support them financially until the day the worker dies and far beyond, in time.

Elon Musk and Tesla, what an antisemitic and racist quack. Go, workers.

This should prove to be one of the cire values of unions: the power of many stops the idiocies of the few.

2023-11-17: Elon Musk's antisemitism stops advertisers

Elon Musk May Have Just Signed X’s Death Warrant

IBM, Disney, Lionsgate, the European Union, and, reportedly, Apple have all pulled advertising from X following Elon Musk’s apparent endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Experts say it could soon get much worse.

2023-11-20: Tesla union conflict expanded, now affects charging stations

Teslakonflikten utvidgas – laddstolparna påverkas

Don't you just love when unions work together against a horrific problem?

The Elektrikerna union expands its sympathy measures against Tesla. Now the car giant's charging stations will be covered.

"The blockade means that we will also not repair if something breaks in Tesla's transformer stations or the associated feeder line, i.e. all incoming electricity to Tesla's charging stations."

So writes Elektrikerna's head of negotiations Mikael Pettersson in a communiqué.

The background to the sympathy measures is the union IF Metall's demand for a collective agreement for Tesla's workers.

2023-11-21: More unions join in the strike against Tesla

Fler fackförbund med i strejken mot Tesla

In many countries, it is the companies that decide everything that the employees must follow. That is not the case in Sweden. Here we have trade unions that are also involved in deciding how we are at work. Now several Swedish trade unions have joined together to strike against a foreign company that makes electric cars, i.e. Tesla.

The unions organize the employees and want all companies to have collective agreements that apply to all employees. It is about wages, working conditions, working hours and working environment.

To force Tesla to have a collective agreement for employees, the union at the factory in Sweden went on strike. Then they were supported by other trade unions. Employees at various companies cooperate and have stopped receiving Tesla's cars at the ports, electricians no longer make charging posts for the electric cars, cleaners have stopped cleaning the factories and mail and packages will not be delivered to Tesla. There are a total of nine unions that have said they will cooperate to force Tesla to have a collective agreement.

Those who drive Tesla's electric cars in Sweden have had problems. It is difficult for them to service the cars and also difficult to change to winter tires.

2023-11-24: Swedish union expands strike to Germany

Facket tar Teslastrejken till Berlin

Now that the Tesla strike has been going on for a month, the union is taking new measures to get the electric car giant to sign a collective agreement.

Today, IF Metall's blockade comes into effect. This will hit Tesla's giant factory outside Berlin, reports SR Ekot.

It is a way to simply increase the pressure, says If Metall's contract secretary Veli-Pekka Säikkälä, to SR.

As part of that, employees at the company Hydro extrusions in Vetlanda are going on strike. The company manufactures components used for crash protection in cars.

2023-11-29: Tobias strikes at Tesla: I'm a little worried

Tobias strejkar på Tesla: "Lite orolig är jag allt"

A month has passed since Tobias Eng Strömberg left his job as a technician at Tesla's center at Hisingen in Gothenburg to go on strike.

Although he became both nervous and a little worried about the future when the strike notice was given, he saw it as a matter of course to participate in the strike. He is in the union, he says.

First, it is about Sweden and the Swedish model. But in concrete terms, it is about safety and security. If we get a collective agreement, we know what conditions and obligations we have. The right thing should be done.

For many co-workers, the strike was not as obvious. Tobias Eng Strömberg does not want to say anything about how large a proportion of the employees are on strike at his center, but he says that in any case it is "a bunch of technicians" who, like him, are participating in the conflict.

2024-12-11: Tesla Has Bitten Off More Than It Can Chew by Picking a Fight With Swedish Unions

Tesla Has Bitten Off More Than It Can Chew by Picking a Fight With Swedish Unions

Elon Musk is attempting to expand Tesla into Sweden and circumvent its unions — but Swedish labor has a long history of taking on big US firms. If they can bring Tesla to heel, it will mark a major victory for organized labor across the globe[^1]

2024-12-14: Wanted: Nordic expert to help Elon Musk defuse Tesla union row

Wanted: Nordic expert to help Elon Musk defuse Tesla union row

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.

What began in October as a strike by mechanics against Tesla in Sweden has spread to three neighbouring countries, as dockworkers in Denmark, Finland and Norway have warned they will stop offloading Tesla cars bound for Sweden in the coming days.

The job advert states the person is needed “to help ensure that the political, regulatory and fiscal frameworks in the ‘Nordics’ (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland) support Tesla’s mission”.

It added that “significant experience with Nordic legislative and regulatory advocacy is needed”.

[...]

Separately, 16 Nordic institutional investors including KLP of Norway and Folksam of Sweden, which together have assets of about $1tn, sent a letter to Tesla’s board on Thursday asking the carmaker to respect the principle of collective bargaining and change its approach to unions.

This came after PensionDanmark, a Danish pension fund, sold its $70mn stake in Tesla in protest at its “very categorical denial to reach collective agreements in any country”.

Some useful links

  1. Tesla Labor Practices and Musk Tweet Broke the Law, Judge Rules
  2. The Trump administration reportedly spent months trying to make sure unauthorized immigrants couldn’t go to school
  3. Elon Musk, His Rocket, and the Grand Scheme that Tore Apart Boca Chica
  4. Elon Musk’s growing empire is fueled by $4.9 billion in government subsidies
  5. “I Was a Starter Wife”: Inside America’s Messiest Divorce
  6. A teenage Elon Musk once casually sold his father’s emeralds to Tiffany & Co. while his dad was sleeping
  7. Elon Musk’s family owns an emerald mine in Zambia — here’s the fascinating story of how they came to own it
  8. A Brief History of How Your Privacy Was Stolen
  9. The Evolution of Elon Musk: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
  10. Tesla workers speak out: ‘Anything pro-union is shut down really fast’
  11. Unpacking Elon Musk’s daylong Twitter rant on unions and US history
  12. Genuine question: Did Elon Musk’s family profit from South African apartheid?
  13. Elon Musk: The Architect of Tomorrow
  14. Elon Musk Accused Of Pushing, Verbally Abusing Senior Tesla Employee
  15. Court documents show Elon Musk privately called himself a ‘f—ing idiot’ after attack on British diver
  16. Tesla Protest
  17. Tesla Worker Group Calls For Elon Musk’s Arrest, Safety Inspection Before Reopening
  18. Tesla Factory Has Dozens of Environmental Violations