After the Tesla strike: The fight for organized labor is not over
Several serious conflicts in Norway and Sweden show that the fight for an organised labour market is far from over. Now the Norwegian model must be defended, says NITO's President Kjetil Lein.
In Sweden, IF Metall went on strike for three years to get a collective agreement, but had to stop when Tesla bought its way out of the "problem".
- We can state that Tesla is so strongly opposed to collective agreements that they would rather buy out employees who are members of the union than give them safe conditions. It is unparalleled in the Swedish labor market, just like Tesla's systematic strikebreaking. They have used methods that have been banned in Sweden since the 1930s," said IF Metall's contract secretary, Simon Petersson, in a press release, when they had to end the strike in the second week of August.
Also happening in Norway
In Bergen, teachers at Bergen Christian Primary School have been on strike for six months to get a collective agreement. For just as long, employees at Andresen Karosseri på Ski have been striking for the same thing.
NITO's President Kjetil Lein has great sympathy with those who are striking for organized labor.
"The power relationship between employer and employee is never balanced, which is why it is necessary to have employees who organize themselves to even out this imbalance," says Lein.
He sees a working life that is hardening, where some employers see themselves benefiting from employees being left alone in the face of a resourceful apparatus.
"We must continue to work for an organised labour market in the face of actors who want to make us individual workers without the collective power the unions give to their members," says Lein.
We must stand up for the Norwegian model
This spring, hotel and cleaning employees went on strike around the country, and in many places the LO claimed that they were doing strikebreaking.
- All these stories help to undermine the organized labor market and the collective schemes that have given everyone in Norway the opportunity to succeed, regardless of background. Now it is more important than in a long time to stand up for the Norwegian model that has served us so well," says Lein.