It has taken nearly a month, but workers striking against Tesla in Sweden have finally drawn a response from the company’s famously anti-union boss. “This is insane,” CEO Elon Musk said Thursday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter that he owns. Musk was responding to news that Swedish postal workers are refusing to deliver Tesla license plates, joining a wave of action in sympathy with mechanics who stopped servicing Tesla cars late last month. About 130 mechanics began their ongoing strike in October after their employer, a Tesla subsidiary in Sweden, announced that it would not recognize their labor union, according to Expressen, a CNN affiliate. The industrial action soon spread to dockworkers who started blocking deliveries of Tesla cars at the country’s ports, to electricians who stopped maintenance work for the carmaker, and other workers in Sweden, Expressen reported. “This is about good wages, good pensions and good insurance for all our members who work at Tesla,” Sweden’s IF Metall union, which called the original strike, said on its website. “We have been negotiating with Tesla for a long time. They have refused to sign a collective (bargaining) agreement and violate basic principles in the Swedish labor market.” The country’s workforce is heavily unionized, with around nine out of 10 workers covered by collective agreements. But unionizing at Tesla has proved difficult. At least three attempts by its U.S. workers to organize have failed, mainly as a consequence of aggressive tactics by the company and weak protections for labor in the United States. The National Labor Relations Board, a U.S. federal agency, has repeatedly called out Tesla and Musk for illegal or improper anti-union activities, such as interrogating employees, and disciplining or otherwise discriminating against workers because they support unions. This year the carmaker fired more than 30 supporters of a nascent union at its facility in Buffalo, New York, just days after the organizing effort was announced. Musk, the world’s richest man, has also been vocal about his opposition to unions and caused the ire of the labor relations agency when it directed him to delete a 2018 tweet that hinted Tesla employees would lose their stock options if they formed a union. Still, the strikes by Swedish workers may embolden Tesla’s employees in Germany, where it has a large plant manufacturing electric vehicles and battery cells. German unions have pressured the company to implement a collective bargaining agreement for its 11,000 workers at the factory near Berlin, according to Reuters. IG Metall, a powerful German Union, says Tesla pays its workers less than other carmakers in Germany and gets rid of employees who are sick too often. More than 1,000 workers at the factory joined the union during a day of protest last month. Earlier this year, Tesla lodged an application to double the production capacity of the plant — located about 30 kilometers from the German capital — to 1 million EVs. If the expansion happens, the factory will overtake Volkswagen’s sprawling plant in the German city of Wolfsburg, stealing its crown as Europe’s biggest car factory. (SD-Agencies) Words to Learn 相關詞匯 【惹惱】 rěnǎo get under skin become a source of irritation 【訊問】 txùnwèn interrogate ask questions of (someone) closely, aggressively, or formally 開始罷工近一個月后，特斯拉瑞典工廠的工人終于收到了老板馬斯克的反饋，他一向反對工會組織。公司CEO埃隆?馬斯克周四在自家的社交媒體平臺X（其前身是推特）上說：“這也太瘋狂了。” 馬斯克發此感嘆是因為瑞典郵政工人拒絕遞送特斯拉車牌，出于同情他們加入了抵制特斯拉的行動，上月底開始瑞典機械師停止了特斯拉車的維保服務。 據美國有線電視新聞網（CNN）旗下的Expressen報道，大約 130名機械師10月份開始罷工，因為他們的雇主 —— 特斯拉的瑞典子公司 —— 拒絕承認他們的工會。 Expressen報道，罷工很快蔓延到碼頭工人，他們阻止特斯拉汽車在瑞典港口運輸，然后蔓延到電工，他們停止維修汽車，后來其他工人也加入了。 發起首次罷工的瑞典IF Metall 會在其網站上說：“這關系到所有在特斯拉工作的工會會員是否能拿到高工資、養老金和足額保險。” “我們已經和特斯拉談判了很長時間。他們拒絕簽署集體（談判）協議，這種做法違反瑞典勞動力市場的基本原則。” 瑞典工人工會化程度很高，大約10名工人中有9人簽了集體協議。 但事實證明，在特斯拉成立工會很難。特斯拉美國工廠的工人至少有三次組織工會的嘗試都以失敗告終，主要原因是特斯拉咄咄逼人，而且美國對勞工的保護薄弱。 美國聯邦機構全國勞資關系委員會曾多次指責特斯拉和馬斯克從事非法或不當的反工會活動，如訊問員工、因工人支持工會而對其進行紀律處分或有其他歧視行為。 今年，這家汽車制造商位于紐約州布法羅的工廠有30多名工人支持新成立的工會，在工會宣布成立幾天之后這些工人就被解雇了。 世界首富馬斯克一直公開反對工會，和工會素有積怨。 他2018 年曾發推文暗示如果特斯拉員工膽敢成立工會，他們將失去股票期權，后來工會要求他刪帖。 瑞典工人的罷工可能會給特斯拉在德國的工人壯膽，他們在德國有一家生產電動汽車和電池的大型工廠。 據路透社報道，德國工會已向特斯拉施壓，要求該公司為柏林附近工廠的 1.1 萬名工人實行集體談判協議。 德國實力雄厚的工會 IG Metall稱，特斯拉支付給工人的工資低于德國其他汽車制造商，而且會解雇經常生病的員工。在上個月某天的抗議活動中，該工廠1000 多名工人加入了工會。 今年早些時候，特斯拉提出申請，請求將該工廠（距離德國首都約 30 公里）的電動車產能翻一番，達到100萬輛。 如果擴產成功，特斯拉柏林廠將超越德國沃爾夫斯堡市的大眾汽車工廠，成為歐洲最大的汽車廠。 (Translated by Debra) | 