Swedish union stops collecting Tesla's trash in solidarity with striking workers

Elon Musk has called the strike action by Swedish workers “insane.” Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

A Swedish union says it will stop collecting trash from Tesla’s workshops amid ongoing strikes.
It’s the latest escalation in the company’s battle with Swedish unions.
The strike has disrupted deliveries of Tesla license plates in Sweden, a move Musk called “insane.”

Elon Musk’s Scandinavian union headache keeps getting worse.

Tesla is now facing the unpleasant prospect of overflowing trash cans after Sweden’s Transport Workers Union said it would stop collecting trash from the company’s workshops in solidarity with striking workers, according to a report from Reuters.

The move marks a further escalation of the US automaker’s ongoing battle with Swedish unions.

At the end of October, mechanics in the Swedish union IF Metall walked out to secure a collective labor agreement. This is a common arrangement in Scandinavian countries that would allow unions to negotiate with Tesla over wages and working conditions.

Other industries have joined the strike in support, with dockworkers refusing to unload the company’s electric cars and electricians stopping maintenance work on Tesla charging stations.

The Transport Workers Union is just the latest to throw its weight behind the strike, with union officials saying workers will stop collecting the company’s waste on December 24 unless Tesla signs a collective bargaining agreement.

“This type of sympathy action is very rare. We are using it now to protect the Swedish collective agreements and the safety of the Swedish labor market model,” Tommy Wreeth, head of the transport union, told Reuters.

Tesla faces growing strike action across Scandinavia, with unions in Denmark, Norway, and Finland backing the strike and pledging not to unload or transport Teslas bound for the Swedish market.

The strike has also seen postal workers in Sweden refuse to deliver Tesla license plates, a move Elon Musk called “insane” in a post on X.

Tesla sued the Swedish Transport Agency to try and restart deliveries, but a Swedish court rejected the company’s suit in a decision last week.

The escalating wave of union action is a serious headache for Musk, who has been a longtime critic of organized labor.

The billionaire told The New York Times’ Dealbook conference that he disagreed with the idea of unions, saying they create a “lords and peasants” atmosphere that pits workers against their companies.

Tesla has firmly opposed any attempts by its US workers to unionize, with the National Labour Board ruling in 2021 that the company had repeatedly violated labor laws by preventing employees from organizing.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.