Foreign and domestic tech giants have tried to
challenge the system, but these attempts are now more likely to backfire. The financial tech company Klarna recently
had to give way after several years of attempting to resist collective bargaining agreements, and settled with employees in a victory for white-collar unions. There is increasing
pressure on Spotify to do the same.
Corporations used to get away with such behaviours, but increasingly successful strikes and labour organising this year suggest that the power balance is shifting. 2023 has been a year of high-profile strikes and labour union victories in the US. Despite decades of supreme court rulings that make it harder to form unions, and conservative state governments enacting so-called right-to-work laws (an Orwellian euphemism for suppressing labour organising), there now seems to be real momentum, with support for unions at record highs. Fewer than 10% of US private sector workers are unionised, but 67% now support unions, up from only 48% in 2009.
The Hollywood actors’ strike organised by the Sag-Aftra union lasted 118 days, making it the longest strike in the guild’s history. It ended with significant victories including big increases in salaries, benefits and pensions, as well as a framework for AI guardrails for actors. More than 75,000 workers for the healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente also participated in a US-wide strike, resulting in pay rises of more than 21% for workers.
When United Auto Workers organised strikes at the “big three” car companies – General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – in Michigan this summer, three-quarters of Americans said they supported it. Joe Biden showed up, having called himself “the most pro-union president in American history”. Characteristic hyperbole perhaps, but Biden’s administration has accomplished quite a lot for labour unions in the past three years, especially compared to the dismal record of other recent presidents. (Donald Trump also showed up in Michigan, but gave a speech at a non-unionised car parts maker, which was equally characteristic of his signature working-class cosplay without policy substance.)
The United Auto Workers strike resulted in big concessions from the carmakers, who agreed to 20-30% pay increases for workers. For Musk, there are reasons to worry that his business model could be challenged, as the fight in Sweden reverberates with the strengthening power of labour organisers across American unions. The average worker for the big three US carmakers now makes significantly more money, and has better benefits, than a Tesla worker, which could make it easier for UAW to organise workers at Tesla factories across the US as well.
In an interview, Susanna Gideonsson, who heads the Swedish trade union federation fighting Tesla, sounded remarkably confident. “This will end with the employees winning a collective bargaining agreement, one way or another,” she said. And if they don’t? “Then Tesla can leave the country.” If she is right, this could be a tremendous symbolic victory, which would strengthen the tailwinds for union movements on both sides of the Atlantic.
In facing off with its Swedish mechanics, Tesla seems to have underestimated the sheer force of the union movement behind them. In classic David v Goliath fashion, the mechanics took on the world’s richest man, but the momentum is now with them.
