One year after the Swedish union IF Metall called for a strike against Tesla, car manufacturer still refuses to negotiate a collective agreement. Moreover, Tesla has taken a rare measure in Europe of importing scabs, flying in staff from other Tesla plants in Europe to replace the striking workers in Sweden.

“It has been a year of strike at Tesla and Elon Musk’s total disrespect for the Swedish model, which has successfully governed the country’s labor market for nearly 100 years, stands in stark contrast to other multinational companies in the country. It is unacceptable and the striking workers have the full support of the 50 million members of IndustriALL behind them,” said IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie today.

In Sweden, twelve other unions have joined with sympathy strikes. Unions representing electricians, longshore men and postal delivery, are taking action. This mean, among other things, that Tesla cars are not offloaded in Swedish ports, no work is done on Tesla charging stations and registration plates are not delivered. The sympathy strikes have also spread to the ports in neighboring Nordic countries, where Danish, Norwegian and Finnish unions are also taking action.