Elon Musk has decried a wave of “insane” strikes focused on Tesla workshops in Sweden, as workers target the US electric car manufacturer in a strike calling for collective bargaining rights.

In what has been portrayed as the largest fight in decades to save Sweden’s union model from global labour practices, the powerful trade union IF Metall has been leading a strike across eight Tesla workplaces in Sweden for five weeks.

It is the first time workers for the US carmaker have gone on strike and on Thursday, Musk, the tech billionaire and chief executive of Tesla, made his feelings clear, writing on X, formerly Twitter: “This is insane.”

  • Neshura@bookwormstory.social
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    9 months ago

    Let’s appreciate the insanity of opening factories in countries with some of the best unions and laws supporting unions and then doing a pikachu face when those unions go and decide to bust your kneecaps for essentially abusing the workers… Elon why did you even open a factory in sweden? It was obvious from the beginning this would happen.

    • Wes_Dev@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      He’s so persecuted. Guys, guys, be nice to Elon. He’s just the victim here. There’s no way these strikes are a direct response to his policies and business practices.

      Poor thing.

  • Gbagginsthe3rd@aussie.zone
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    9 months ago

    Typical rich person mentality. How easily they forget they don’t create wealth in a vacuum. People are only that rich off the hard work of other people

    • MartinXYZ@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      I know there are Tesla Factories in Norway, but I don’t think there are any in Denmark. I’m Danish, but I could be wrong.

      • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It’s more about the sympathy striking. If danish post clerks did not deliver letters to Tesla’s offices or like in Sweden, they won’t make number plates or unload them from the ships

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    I mean, he makes several hundred times what any of those workers make. That’s because his labor is just soooo much more valuable than anything they could do, should be easy for him do all their work too, right?..right?

    Yeah, just a friendly reminder that no rich person is “self-made.” Their wealth (especially billionaires) is built off the backs of hundreds, often thousands of exploited workers, combined with favors and handouts from the government.

    I love watching Musk screech and scream while his ass gets clapped by unions, keep it up!

    • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      I mean, he makes several hundred times what any of those workers make.

      Not several hundred times more. A million times more. If you made 100k, he made 1000 x 1000 as much as you to make 100 billion.

      A billion dollars is an unfathomable amount of money. A hundred billion is unknowable. If anything, your points are even more poignant.

      • lud@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        I think they are referring to his actual salary and not his “worth”.

  • wandermind@sopuli.xyz
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    9 months ago

    I feel like if someone is insane, it must be Musk, trying to circumvent the unions in a Nordic country, which have one some of the strongest unions and union culture in the world.

    • TylerDurdenJunior@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      They used to have an even greater influence… These days there are no real extended demands, just smaller pay rises for many unions. And the social democratic political parties have severed the historical ties to them i many countries.

      The collective agreements are still pretty strong, with unions blocking companies unwilling to agree to these collective Agreements.

      Like when Burger King came to Denmark I believe it was, they refused to make collective agreements, and like in Sweden now, many other unions joined in year long boycotts until Burger King caved and agreed to comply.

      McDonald’s made collective agreements from the start, but had some tax evasion scheme that resulted in them not paying any taxes for decades up until fairly recently.

      There is still cross union solidarity, that flair up now and again. But lobbied so called “yellow unions”, that offers economical security benifits but without politics for a much lower fee price have chipped away at the older more classic unions.

      The US is one of the most active places union wise these days. God knows they need it.

  • deegeese@sopuli.xyz
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    9 months ago

    “They are insane” = “I’m so far out of touch I can’t understand people who work for a living”

    • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      More like ‘I’m a sociopath who thinks petty things like empathy and basic human rights are stupid. Now get back to work, my servants are meant to be seen, not heard.’

  • Zink@programming.dev
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    9 months ago

    I’m an American that hasn’t been to many other countries, but Sweden is fortunately one of them. The culture is different from what I’m used to, and it boils down to respecting the dignity of the people around you, and in the process respecting yourself as well.

    So, it’s very nice to see the solidarity of the workers, but also not surprising. In a good way.

  • Jessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    9 months ago

    Poor guy. It must be so difficult watching his workers joining together to demand their fair share of his company’s profits. It’d be a real shame if workers in other countries follow suit. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it must be to be a billionaire. Those poor bastards.

    • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Musk could spend a million dollars per day for 500 years and still be a billionaire. That’s a literally incomprehensible amount of money.

      He could single-handedly end world hunger and barely notice a difference in his staggering wealth. Just paying his fair share of taxes would have a seismic effect on the US in so many ways, but instead he hoards more and more, siphoning wealth from those who need it most into coffers so large, he can’t even really notice.

      It’s obscene.

    • EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website
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      9 months ago

      If workers tried this in Canada the police would roll them over.

      It’s a crime to block roads and railways in protest here, unless the police like you, then they take selfies with you.