Elon Musk has decried a wave of “insane” strikes focused on Tesla workshops in Sweden, as workers target the US electric car manufacturer in a strike calling for collective bargaining rights.

In what has been portrayed as the largest fight in decades to save Sweden’s union model from global labour practices, the powerful trade union IF Metall has been leading a strike across eight Tesla workplaces in Sweden for five weeks.

It is the first time workers for the US carmaker have gone on strike and on Thursday, Musk, the tech billionaire and chief executive of Tesla, made his feelings clear, writing on X, formerly Twitter: “This is insane.”

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[–] 211 points 2 years ago (22 children)

Guys, this is what success for the working class looks like.

If the ruling class is upset, it's because we're doing something right.

If they're content, it's because they're fucking us up the ass with no lube or reach-around.

They literally want us to roll over and just take it. And some of us are proud to. Glad that number is rapidly diminishing, though.

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    [–] 204 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Cry harder billionaire.

    Literally made his money on exploitation and lies. SpaceX is amazing, but built on much smarter minds; he was just the wallet. And he bought Tesla and has been lying and overpromising since he did.

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  • [–] 71 points 2 years ago (13 children)

    NASA could do what SpaceX does if we gave NASA the money we gave SpaceX. I won't even give him credit for that.

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  • [–] 57 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    But didn't he also go above and beyond to have him portrayed as founder of SpaceX?

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  • [–] 70 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Yeah, and I'm fairly certain he bought the right to be called 'founder' of Tesla... From the founders.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago

    Then almost immediately bankrupted Tesla. Was their first near miss of going under.

    Story has been retconned on their website to say Elon fixed the car. That the Roadster wasn't even close to production ready. He did neither.

    What really happened is he wanted to redo much of the looks of the car to put his stamp on it. They spent a small fortune tweaking the Elise body to make it look just slightly less like one. Ballooned their production costs and added a ton of delays. The original team was going to use the Elise chassis as it came from Lotus and people had already lined up to buy that.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago

    Literally made his money on exploitation and lies. SpaceX is amazing, but built on much smarter minds; he was just the wallet.

    Not to mention 100's of millions of subsidies from the US government. Space X could never have survived with only his wealth!

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    [–] 152 points 2 years ago

    Musk whines: "This isn't fair, I'm rich, poor people have to do what I say! Get back to work peasants! Why isn't it working?!"

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  • [–] 104 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    Hmmm calling your workers insane for striking due to their lives and wellbeings endangered, seems entirely responsible and in no way insane.

    Is he out of touch? No it is the workers who are wrong.

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    [–] 94 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Typical rich person mentality. How easily they forget they don’t create wealth in a vacuum. People are only that rich off the hard work of other people

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  • [–] 94 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I feel like if someone is insane, it must be Musk, trying to circumvent the unions in a Nordic country, which have one some of the strongest unions and union culture in the world.

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  • [–] 32 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    They used to have an even greater influence... These days there are no real extended demands, just smaller pay rises for many unions. And the social democratic political parties have severed the historical ties to them i many countries.

    The collective agreements are still pretty strong, with unions blocking companies unwilling to agree to these collective Agreements.

    Like when Burger King came to Denmark I believe it was, they refused to make collective agreements, and like in Sweden now, many other unions joined in year long boycotts until Burger King caved and agreed to comply.

    McDonald's made collective agreements from the start, but had some tax evasion scheme that resulted in them not paying any taxes for decades up until fairly recently.

    There is still cross union solidarity, that flair up now and again. But lobbied so called "yellow unions", that offers economical security benifits but without politics for a much lower fee price have chipped away at the older more classic unions.

    The US is one of the most active places union wise these days. God knows they need it.

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  • [–] 89 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The sound of strong unions is music to my ears.

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  • [–] 49 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    There are almost no minimum wage laws but 90% of workers are unionized or represented in some way. They strike very rarely because employers know unions are strong there but when they do, oh boy the whole country is behind the workers on strike.

    130 mechanics started the whole thing!

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  • [–] 81 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    He should just call them all pedophiles, that should resolve the issue.

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    [–] 79 points 2 years ago* (11 children)

    To me, proof that Elon Musk is a doofus and not as smart as he thinks he is, is that he had this public persona of "real life Iron Man" billionaire playboy thing going, and within just a couple years his public image has become "douche bag with too much money". Obviously that one is way closer to reality, which is exactly my point.

    Someone with half a brain would have hired a PR team to keep the original image intact for as long as possible, but he's so egotistical and so prideful and so oblivious he thinks he can let his real self on display and that'll just carry him

    I think most people are at a point where they only really want to know what he's up to to make fun of him.

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    [–] 71 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Let's appreciate the insanity of opening factories in countries with some of the best unions and laws supporting unions and then doing a pikachu face when those unions go and decide to bust your kneecaps for essentially abusing the workers... Elon why did you even open a factory in sweden? It was obvious from the beginning this would happen.

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    [–] 65 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I’ll take “Things petulant billionaires say when they don’t get their way” for $1000, Alex.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago

    He's so persecuted. Guys, guys, be nice to Elon. He's just the victim here. There's no way these strikes are a direct response to his policies and business practices.

    Poor thing.

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  • [–] 56 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    “They are insane” = “I’m so far out of touch I can’t understand people who work for a living”

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    [–] 55 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I mean, he makes several hundred times what any of those workers make. That's because his labor is just soooo much more valuable than anything they could do, should be easy for him do all their work too, right?...right?

    Yeah, just a friendly reminder that no rich person is "self-made." Their wealth (especially billionaires) is built off the backs of hundreds, often thousands of exploited workers, combined with favors and handouts from the government.

    I love watching Musk screech and scream while his ass gets clapped by unions, keep it up!

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    I mean, he makes several hundred times what any of those workers make.

    Not several hundred times more. A million times more. If you made 100k, he made 1000 x 1000 as much as you to make 100 billion.

    A billion dollars is an unfathomable amount of money. A hundred billion is unknowable. If anything, your points are even more poignant.

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  • [–] 54 points 2 years ago

    I’m an American that hasn’t been to many other countries, but Sweden is fortunately one of them. The culture is different from what I’m used to, and it boils down to respecting the dignity of the people around you, and in the process respecting yourself as well.

    So, it’s very nice to see the solidarity of the workers, but also not surprising. In a good way.

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  • [–] 51 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Billionaires, the true Unskilled Worker

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    [–] 47 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Poor guy. It must be so difficult watching his workers joining together to demand their fair share of his company’s profits. It’d be a real shame if workers in other countries follow suit. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it must be to be a billionaire. Those poor bastards.

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Musk could spend a million dollars per day for 500 years and still be a billionaire. That’s a literally incomprehensible amount of money.

    He could single-handedly end world hunger and barely notice a difference in his staggering wealth. Just paying his fair share of taxes would have a seismic effect on the US in so many ways, but instead he hoards more and more, siphoning wealth from those who need it most into coffers so large, he can’t even really notice.

    It’s obscene.

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  • [–] 47 points 2 years ago (18 children)

    "Waaaah my precious market forces are working against me."

    They've seen 50-100% payrises in many cases - unions are important.

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    [–] 40 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    LOL, being forced to burn $44 billion on Twitter was completely rational.

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    [–] 37 points 2 years ago (1 child)
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    [+] 31 points 2 years ago (1 child)
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    [–] 26 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Far åt fanders, surgubbe!

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    [–] 25 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Waiting for Noway and Denmark to join in and make it even more insane

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    [–] 24 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    Yes, it is insane to go against unions in a country with a high degree of unionisation, where collective bargaining agreements are signed exactly because they prevent industrial unrest by ensuring the relationship between management and workers isn't adverserial.

    I mean, I say it's insane, but let's be honest. Musk is yet another arrogant American CEO who didn't do his research on how things work in non-domestic markets. It's as much stupidity and arrogance, as it is insanity. Imagine thinking you somehow know better than companies like McDonalds (who did sign agreements with unions).

    Musk seems like the kind of guy who thinks about the Roman Empire entirley too much. So it's surprising that he's never heard of the expression 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do.'

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    [–] 22 points 2 years ago

    Oh here is some of your own medicine, how does it taste?

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    "Strikes are insane!" declares man who thinks Jews aren't white people.

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    [–] 18 points 2 years ago

    Nazicuntsayswhat

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago

    More Trump-like shit. Anyone who opposes him is 'deranged' or 'crazy'.

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