Tesla lost a chapter in a legal battle with Sweden’s postal service yesterday as a fight with Nordic trade unions escalates, with a Finnish union joining a port blockade that will prevent the carmaker from importing its vehicles to Sweden.
A Swedish court ruled PostNord does not for the time being need to deliver licence plates to Tesla that are being blocked by the postal service’s workers, in the latest twist in a fight over collective bargaining agreements.
Tesla is facing growing pressure in the Nordic countries from powerful employee unions backing Swedish IF Metall’s mechanics who went on strike on October 27 demanding a collective agreement with the company.
Finnish transport workers’ union AKT decided yesterday to join the sympathy strike against Tesla, saying it would start a blockade of Tesla vehicles destined to Sweden in all Finnish ports from December 20.
“That means Tesla vehicles or components destined to Swedish markets are not loaded by dockers,” AKT said in a statement.
AKT’s announcement followed similar decisions by Swedish, Danish and Norwegian dockworkers, meaning Tesla will be effectively barred from shipping its cars to Sweden.
“It is a crucial part of the Nordic labour market model that we have collective agreements and unions support each other, AKT president Ismo Kokko said in a statement.
The Nordics is a key market for Tesla, which has a policy of not agreeing to collective bargaining and has said its staff have as good or better terms than those IF Metall is demanding.
A large Danish pension fund said yesterday it had sold its holdings in Tesla over its refusal to enter into such deals. “We sold our Tesla shares on December 6, when they had a market value of 476 million Danish crowns,” ($68.9m) PensionDanmark told Reuters by email.
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