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Tesla hiring Nordic policy expert as 'WWE-like standoff' with unions intensifies (www.cnbc.com)

submitted 11 months ago by alphacyberranger@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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[-] bstix@feddit.dk 96 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

"whose role will be to ensure that the "political, regulatory and fiscal frameworks" in the Nordics "support Tesla's mission."

LOL. Lets hire 1 person to change the politics in 4 countries to support a foreign private company..

(Also.. .. The primary point in all the nordic models is that politics shouldn't interfere in the labour market.)

It's ridiculously amusing to see the world's richest man attempting to throw money at a problem that can't be solved with money. I like it a lot.

[-] guylacaptivite@sh.itjust.works 61 points 11 months ago

Funny thing is it can be fixed with money. If only he gave it to the workers instead of lobbyists.

[-] bstix@feddit.dk 25 points 11 months ago

The workers don't want money. They want a collective agreement.

[-] guylacaptivite@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Ok honestly the article doesn't speak of the demands or offers. But anyway, what kind of agreement? That doesn't really say anything otherwise. I did assume it was a monetary issue since it almost always boils down to more money even when you speak of benefits. More vacation, more sick days, more insurances, more hours, less hours, it all means money in the end.

[-] RustnRuin@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months ago

https://lo.se/english/the_collective_agreement

[-] guylacaptivite@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago

Thanks for that link it's very enlightening. But isn't that just another way of legislating how work contracts are negotiated? In the end what is the issue that prevents the unions to reach a collective agreement with Tesla? I might not have been clear in my first post but that's more specifically what I meant. There must be some disagreement in the remuneration of workers isn't it?

[-] bstix@feddit.dk 8 points 11 months ago

The difference in remuneration in this case is only some holidays and health insurance. Not much in monetary value. That's not the problem.

A collective agreement also gives employees more rights which can be difficult to convert to a fixed price. Rights to negotiate. Rights to know the schedule in advance. Rights to take time off for education. Rights to take days off when you have sick children. Things like paid sick days, maternity and parental leave are also not fully covered by the law alone but requires a collective agreement to function properly.

The only issue preventing the union from reaching an agreement with Tesla is that the CEO of Tesla does not want to sign a collective agreement. I don't think he even understands what it is.

[-] guylacaptivite@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Thanks for your response.

It's what I meant. I understand that this negotiation cannot simply be fixed by a single check. Musk continually shows that he's a lying imbecile but Tesla management knows that if their workforce has the power to decide the terms of their employment, it's going to hurt their financial growth and that's unfortunately unacceptable for these leeches. Also the reason people cannot take unpaid (key word) time off, go back to school or have children is because they cannot afford it. Health care and insurance is also expensive when taken from an individual perspective. So of course the employers don't want to pay for that. So while I did simplify the issue, all of those advantages are actually means to mitigate the cost of living in this dysfunctional and unequal world.

I also want to say that I am 100% in support of the workers. People's lives are important and there is no businesses without people.

[-] UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev 70 points 11 months ago

All Tesla will achieve is destroying their reputation. Going after our unions is a boneheaded idea that will never work.

[-] andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 35 points 11 months ago

I genuinely don't understand what Musk considers his leverage here.

It seems like he has... none?

[-] AlexJD@feddit.uk 42 points 11 months ago

His legal basis is that he thinks he's right

[-] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 6 points 11 months ago

He lives in the US and like many Americans, believes he can get away with the awful practices he could back home.

Doesn't even understand the mentality between the populations is completely different.

In Norway, the unions are beloved by all. Union busting just isn't a thing you can do.

[-] sunbytes@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

If the John Oliver piece on him is anything to go by, he thinks he's saving the world.

And if that has to ruin a few thousand people's work/life balance, it's worth it.

Plus effective altruism blah blah.

[-] MisterNeon@lemmy.world 50 points 11 months ago

I'm legitimately confused, is he trying to hire a Nordic version of an American lobbyist?

[-] 9point6@lemmy.world 24 points 11 months ago

[laugh track]

[-] Stamau123@lemmy.world 48 points 11 months ago

You'd think they'd hire the expert before entering the market?

[-] mumblerfish@lemmy.world 41 points 11 months ago

They did not and it is fucking hilarious. One instance is their spokesperson admits to a jounalist they have no clue at all what is legal and what is not when it comes to getting scabs. Which they 100% tried to get. "But we are only getting swedish scabs, not foreign scabs! Oh, not allowed? Really? Ehhhh...". Then a letter gets leaked by one of Teslas lobbyists trying to suck up to the minister of labour market (thats a literal translation, not sure what its called in english), and its all like "I dare wish for a short audience with you sire", basically. Cringe stuff. The minister of labour markets is the party leader of the liberal party, and has the backbone of a bacteria, celebrates working with the far right now because that gives him a minister post. Weakest liberal in the world, and he fucking ignores the letter. Hahahha

[-] CAVOK@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

It's perfectly legal to hire scabs in Sweden BTW. Frowned upon, but legal.

[-] uranibaba@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Any source? I want to read more.

[-] mumblerfish@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

The interview with the spokesperson: https://da.se/2023/10/teslas-svar-om-strejkbrytare-ar-det-verkligen-olagligt-att-flytta-personal-inom-landet/ On the lobbyist: https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/l3PQdM/tesla-forsokte-paverka-regeringen-via-mejl

[-] SeaJ@lemm.ee 22 points 11 months ago

I mean Twitter currently only has one site reliability engineer so being prepared is clearly not a priority for Musk.

[-] PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

I very badly want this to be true, but I simply cannot imagine it. I think my company might have more SREs than Twitter has employees, but I cannot see how they could do global ops like that. Or even just California ops.

[-] SeaJ@lemm.ee 13 points 11 months ago

If this sounds familiar, it’s because something similar happened in March, taking down links and images across timelines for around an hour. Twitter blamed that on an “internal change that had some unintended consequences” before Platformer reported the bug occurred because of a mistake by the site’s single remaining site reliability engineer, who was operating solo after Musk instituted massive layoffs.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/13/24000170/x-outage-link-error-message-broken

It was true in March at least.

[-] maynarkh@feddit.nl 45 points 11 months ago

Sign the collective agreement!

I'd like my millions in cash, please.

[-] andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 2 points 11 months ago

Go apply. Who knows? Maybe the job will be yours.

[-] Jaysyn@kbin.social 42 points 11 months ago

It boggles my mind how this fucking loser ever got to where he is now.

It's a damn shame that kid didn't push him just a little harder down those stairs.

[-] Mamertine@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago

... how this fucking loser ever got to where he is now.

Starting life as the billionaire heir to a lucrative gem mine built on slave labor will let you stay rich no matter how much you fuck up.

He invested a lot of money into an electric car company. Anyone could tell the wind was blowing towards electric cars.

[-] domi@lemmy.secnd.me 4 points 11 months ago

Anyone could tell the wind was blowing towards electric cars.

Not to defend Musk but that is simply not true. Everyone was saying electric cars will never work. Just 6 years ago the Volkswagen CEO made fun of Tesla and now they are still playing the catch up game.

https://youtu.be/wSklSKRkIpk (english subtitles available)

[-] Jumi@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

German car manufacturers live on goverment subsidies not innovation so that man's opinion is trash.

[-] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 4 points 11 months ago

Elmo didn't start Tesla, he isn't a founder.

He only invested a bit like he does with tons of companies. And when Tesla became popular, sued the real founders in order to call himself a founder.

Elmo is like the Steve Jobs of electric cars. The only thing he was good at was marketing.

[-] HollandJim@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

So what? Diess was optimistic but had to also drag German labor along, and that market has rights US union could only dream of.

But he worked cooperatively with them, even through a worldwide pandemic. They’re still waiting for parts.

We’re far beyond that pandemic and Elon is doing whatever his highness wants, when he wants it. Surprise, surprise - it doesn’t get him anywhere outside of Republican-controlled territories, and he’s having a hissy fit on X.

I, meanwhile, munch popcorn and enjoy driving the VW ID.3 I bought in place of the Model 3 order I cancelled. Fuck Musk - he gets none of my money, and clearly nothing from Norway either.

[-] domi@lemmy.secnd.me 2 points 11 months ago

So what?

None of what you said is wrong but none of it concerns the original statement that everyone knew things were headed towards electric cars.

Nobody knew, nobody would have invested, but Musk tried anyway. One can be a massive asshole and sometimes right at the same time.

Your ID.3 is the product of the push Tesla gave the industry at a point in time where nobody gave a shit about electric cars. Who knows much much longer things would have taken without that push.

[-] HollandJim@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Tesla wasn’t alone in the push. Nissan’s Leaf was very popular but Tesla made it cool. Cool, as long as you cold afford it, but dieselgate and climate change are what made EVs a necessity today.

But to the original point - why do you think we need to repeat common news from the past few months? He’s been trying to union bust and the entire distribution chain in Norway is fighting back - maybe do some reading first before launching a defense?

[-] domi@lemmy.secnd.me 1 points 11 months ago

Tesla wasn’t alone in the push. Nissan’s Leaf was very popular but Tesla made it cool. Cool, as long as you cold afford it,

The Leaf came both after the initial Roadster launch and the initial funding by Musk. They definitely helped but the main push was the Model S and 3.

but dieselgate and climate change are what made EVs a necessity today.

Do you really believe anyone gave a damn about dieselgate or gives a damn about climate change now? You gave them money by buying a ID.3, did the dieselgate situation influence your decision at all?

maybe do some reading first before launching a defense?

My comment is in reference to a single sentence. Neither am I defending anyone, simply correcting a wrong statement. If you do not think the statement is wrong, that is fine but don't tell me to do some reading while ignoring the context of the comment chain.

[-] HollandJim@lemmy.world -2 points 11 months ago

Do you really believe anyone gave a damn about dieselgate or gives a damn about climate change now?

You told me all you need to tell me about yourself. Goodbye.

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[-] PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

People with money tend to trust people with money because their ego tells them how smart they are because of their own success, and they project that onto others.

Elon is also a brilliant con man, exactly like Donald Trump. They’re so close, it’s uncanny. Elon apparently got $13B in loans from major banks by telling them that his businesses never lose money.

We will have to see if reality is finally catching up with them.

[-] saltesc@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

He looks like a poorly aged Squall Leonhart in that thumbnail.

[-] wombatula@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago

Yet somehow manages to be even more cringe than Squall, which is quite the achievement.

[-] Stern@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

What does a WWE like standoff even mean. Is Roman Reigns going to run in with a steel chair?

[-] chitak166@lemmy.world -3 points 11 months ago

So funny watching rich people use poor people's money against them.

this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023

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