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The strike crisis facing Tesla in Sweden continues to escalate. According to media reports, nine trade unions have participated in the blockade of Tesla, and a key parts supplier has joined the negotiations, asking Tesla to sign a collective bargaining agreement for its Swedish workers. Starting on Friday local time, about 50 workers at Hydro Extrudes, a maker of Tesla's special parts, either stay at home or do other jobs. Hydro Extrudes, a subsidiary of Hydro, Norway, is the only supplier of these parts to Tesla's Berlin plant. IF Metall said about 50 workers from Hydro Extrusions who make parts for Tesla will stay at home or take on other tasks from Friday until further notice.

It is understood that Sweden is Tesla's fifth largest market in Europe, and the trigger for the strike was Tesla's inability to reach an agreement with the Swedish trade union on signing a collective labor agreement. For the past five years, IF Metall has been trying to persuade Tesla to sign a collective labor agreement, but failed.

On October 27th, Tesla broke out a strike in Sweden, which was initiated by about 130 employees of Tesla's local maintenance shop. The industrial workers' union "IF Metall", which represents Tesla's mechanics, announced the strike, initially affecting only Tesla's seven local maintenance shops. It is understood that longshoremen, garbage collectors, electricians and postal workers all refuse to do any work related to Tesla, especially postal workers. Their protest infuriated Musk because the strike of postal workers made customers unable to receive new Tesla car delivery license plates. The country's regulations allow delivery only by mail, and Dockers and car dealers also joined the strike. Refused to ship and sell Tesla products.

Tesla's Swedish branch last had a dialogue with the Swedish trade union IF Metall on November 6, but Musk has ordered Tesla's Swedish branch not to sign a collective agreement with IF MetallIF Metall, a statement that directly stalled the negotiations between Tesla's Swedish branch and IF Metall.

Tesla does not have an automobile production plant in Sweden, but there are many maintenance workshops in various parts of the country, which are responsible for providing maintenance services to Tesla car owners, and most of these repair workshops belong to the Swedish trade union IF Metall. The Swedish trade union IF Metall hopes that Tesla Sweden can sign a collective labor agreement with it, but it was directly refused by Tesla and Musk, so the strike broke out. At present, Dockers, garbage collectors, electricians and postal workers all refuse to do any work related to Tesla, and even key parts suppliers have begun to strike against Tesla. No matter what the consideration, the strike action will directly affect Tesla's sales and business activities in Sweden, while Musk explicitly told Tesla that the Swedish branch will not sign any labor agreements, forcing the negotiations between the two sides to come to a standstill. It is unclear whether Mr Musk will then change his mind, or whether the Swedish union IF Metall will end the strike.

The move may be modelled on UAW's strike against Detroit's three auto giants. UAW employees re-sign contracts with Detroit's three auto giants every four years. The union's contract with Detroit's three auto giants expires on September 14. The union requires the three auto giants to raise wages, pensions, health care, unemployment and other security to deal with the crisis of the cost of living brought about by high inflation in the United States, including a 40% pay increase and a four-day week, but within the deadline. The two sides did not agree on a new labor agreement and eventually launched a large-scale strike, which forced the three giants to face huge losses, and eventually the three auto giants had to choose dandruff. On October 31st, all three Detroit manufacturers reached an interim agreement with UAW, and UAW officially suspended its strike against the Detroit Big three, which is nearing the end of a six-week general strike involving nearly 50, 000 workers.

UAW employees' strike against Detroit's big three manufacturers was far-reaching, and automakers including Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai and Subaru announced pay increases for American workers.

It is worth mentioning that Tesla did not become the target of the strike because Tesla employees did not join the guild. Musk revealed that the wages of Tesla's American employees are much higher than those of Detroit manufacturers. This may be the reason why they are reluctant to join the guild and go on strike. However, Shawn Fain, chairman of UAW, has clearly stated the goal of the next stage-Tesla.

Earlier, German trade unions had pressed Tesla to provide a similar agreement for 11000 workers at the Gruenheide plant near Berlin. Earlier this month, Tesla said wages for German factory workers would rise by 4 per cent, but the German union IG Metall said Tesla's wages were still about 20 per cent lower than those of companies offering collective agreements.

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