This long-running strike could be resolved if Tesla recognised a simple fact that I’ve uncovered in my reporting

The US presidential election has not been the only high-stakes date looming for Elon Musk. It has been more than a year since Swedish workers came out on strike against his electric car giant Tesla. Swedish industrial union IF Metall has been demanding better wages, benefits and conditions for mechanics in Tesla repair shops across the country, but fundamentally what is at stake is the Swedish labour market model of collective bargaining which Musk refuses to recognise.

It is the first and only strike against Tesla anywhere in the world. And it has now become the longest-running strike in Sweden for a century. In April, six months into the dispute, Musk said: “Actually, I think the storm has passed on that front, I think things are in reasonably good shape in Sweden.” That was not true then, and it is not true now.

German Bender is chief analyst at the progressive Swedish thinktank Arena and a senior research associate at Harvard Law School’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy. His book on the Swedish Tesla strike will be published in 2025