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Swedish Tesla strike expands to include charging stations

An almost four-month long strike in Sweden against carmaker Tesla over its refusal to sign a collective wage agreement will be extended to include a blockade on charging stations, a union said.

Swedish Tesla strike expands to include charging stations
File photo of Tesla charging stations in Sweden. Photo: Jonas Dagson/TT

Swedish union Seko said it would halt maintenance on, and the installation of, Tesla charging stations.

The Swedish strike was launched by the metal workers’ union IF Metall on October 27th when mechanics at 10 Tesla repair shops in seven cities walked off the job.

It has since grown into a larger conflict between Tesla and almost a dozen unions seeking to protect Sweden’s labour model, including postal workers, dock workers and even spreading to neighbouring Nordic countries.

The Swedish Union for Service and Communications Employees (Seko) said its measures included “the blocking of work on planning, preparation, new connections, network expansion, service, maintenance and repairs for all Tesla charging stations in Sweden.”

It said the industrial action would come into force on March 4th.

Negotiated sector by sector, collective agreements with unions are the basis of the Nordic labour market model, covering almost 90 percent of all employees in Sweden and 80 percent in Denmark, and guaranteeing wages and working conditions.

Despite the fact that many of Tesla’s employees in Sweden are union members, they cannot benefit from the collective bargaining agreements unless Tesla signs on to them.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has long rejected calls to allow the company’s 127,000 employees worldwide to unionise.

Earlier this week, newspaper DN reported that IF Metall was struggling to get mechanics to participate in the strike and cited statistics from the Swedish National Mediation Office which showed that only about a third of the some 130 Tesla mechanics had actually walked off the job.

IF Metall announced last week it would allow a temporary exemption to allow some repairs on older Tesla cars.

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Swedish healthcare strike: What nurses and midwives’ overtime ban means for you

A nationwide healthcare strike involving tens of thousands of Swedish nurses and midwives got under way on Thursday afternoon, after negotiations about salaries and rotas broke down.

Swedish healthcare strike: What nurses and midwives' overtime ban means for you

The industrial action, launched by the Swedish Association of Health Professionals, kicked off at 4pm on Thursday.

The union represents nurses, midwives, biomedical scientists and radiographers.

Up to 63,000 union members are affected by the strike, which means that they are to refuse to work overtime or extra shifts, and that employers may not hire new staff as long as the action is ongoing.

EXPLAINED:

Managers are exempt from the strike.

“We haven’t had any unreasonable expectations. We want to be able to have the energy to work full time, we want sustainable schedules and four weeks of continuous vacation in summer. We want higher wages so that it’s equal,” union chair Sineva Ribeiro said earlier this month.

“During the pandemic we were called superheroes and went to work on our days off to save lives. We were applauded then, but today we have to choose between falling ill ourselves or reducing our hours to part time to be able to cope. At the end of the day, patients take the hit,” she added.

She said the workers they represent in total worked 3 million hours in overtime last year.

But negotiations with SKR (the umbrella organisation for Swedish regions) and employer organisation Sobona have failed to bring the parties closer together. Late on Wednesday the union and SKR and Sobona again rejected each other’s proposals and counter proposals.

Healthcare services are generally urging patients to turn up to scheduled appointments (although as healthcare is managed on a regional basis in Sweden, it may make sense to check with your healthcare provider), but warn that surgeries may have to be cancelled.

“There’s a risk that we will have to reduce our capacity for planned surgeries and you will be informed if your surgery is affected,” Region Sörmland writes on its website.

“We prioritise emergencies and healthcare that cannot wait without risking life or long-term health,” Region Halland’s healthcare director Martin Engström writes in a statement.

Region Kronoberg and Blekinge meanwhile warn of longer waiting times for test results.

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