Musk’s Scandinavian woes deepen as Tesla loses Swedish court case

TeslaThe company’s feud with Scandinavia’s unions deepened on Thursday when it lost a lawsuit against Sweden’s postal service over its refusal to provide license plates to the U.S. electric car giant.

this Postal service workers blocked Tesla delivered the license late last month in a show of solidarity with mechanics after the company refused to sign a collective bargaining agreement with employees, as is common practice in Sweden.

Tesla has taken legal action, with CEO Musk calling the move “crazy,” but a Swedish court ruled on Thursday that PostNord will not be forced to provide the license plates for now.

Perhaps more worrying for Musk, however, are the sympathy strikes spreading across Scandinavia, as unions unite behind the region’s deep-rooted collective bargaining principles as the linchpin of industrial relations.

Union members across several Swedish industries have joined a second strike action, along with members of the union IF Metall, which has been fighting Tesla for about six weeks.

Earlier this week, Denmark’s largest union announced its own sympathy strike to prevent Tesla cars from being shipped to Danish ports and destined for Sweden.

Norway’s largest private sector union at the time announced on wednesday It intends to block vehicle shipments to Sweden starting on December 20.

Finnish transport workers’ union AKT confirmed on Thursday that from December 20, a blockade of Tesla cars destined specifically for Sweden will also come into effect at all Finnish ports.

AKT Chairman Ismo Kokko said workers’ collective agreements are “an important part of the Nordic labor market system”. Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.

Meanwhile, one of Denmark’s largest pension funds announced on Wednesday that it would sell its Tesla shares as the U.S. company refuses to reach a deal with unions. According to Reuters, PensionDanmark sold the shares at a market value of 476 million Danish kroner ($68.8 million).

PensionDanmark told CNBC on Friday that its approach to responsible investing is “based on international conventions and agreements, including International Labor Organization conventions on labor rights.”

“If a company does not comply with our policies, we will first try to influence the company through active ownership – either directly or in coordination with other shareholders. This is also the case with Tesla,” the pension fund said in a statement. Statement sent by email.

If the fund assesses that it cannot exert enough influence over a company, as is the case with Tesla, it may decide to exclude that company’s stock from its holdings.

“Given that the conflict is currently spreading to Denmark, and Tesla’s recent categorical refusal to sign agreements in any country, we have concluded that as investors we currently have little opportunity to influence the company. This is why we are now placing Tesla Added to our exclusion list,” PensionDanmark added.

Tesla’s policy of not pursuing collective bargaining is running into a broad ideological impasse – such agreements between employers and workers are key to the Scandinavian economic model, which guarantees workers negotiate wages, holidays, overtime pay and other conditions.

Tesla did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.