this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
867 points (98.1% liked)

Technology

59039 readers
3654 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Tesla may have picked an unwinnable fight with Sweden’s powerful unions — The first ever strikes and a solidarity blockade against the US carmaker could force it to rethink its entire anti-union model::The first ever strikes and a solidarity blockade against the US carmaker could force it to rethink its entire anti-union model, says journalist Martin Gelin

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 151 points 11 months ago (3 children)

For you outside Sweden: There is no such thing as minimum wage. It's perfectly legal to hire someone for 0 SEK / month.

The whole idea is that a collective agreement should be negotiated and agreed upon by the employers and employees in each business area (like telecom, healthcare, factory workers, electricians etc etc). The idea is that the employers and employees, not the politicians, knows more about what their market/business area requires and is able to deliver in the form of minimum wage, yearly salary increase, vacation and overtime (among other things) .

Here's the thing that often is different in discusions like the one about Tesla refusing to sign a collective agreement: Collective agreements only limits the minimums. So the only reason to refuse to sign is if you intend to keep some thing below the levels that are the norm in your business area.

Essentially, you're trying to get unfair competitive advantage.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I am always impressed by the European laws, they are way ahead of anything. Honestly congrats to Sweden

[–] [email protected] 56 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That’s broadly not how the labour market works in Europe - but it does in Scandinavia, where the unions “won” (and long may they reign). Almost EVERYONE is in a union, most unions have negotiated a seat on the board of the business and as a result, the union-employer relationship is SO different to elsewhere. This includes the need for state interventions like minimum wage or work time maximums (except the EU directives on work time maximums, which the Nordic countries felt very uncomfortable adopting as it felt like an unnecessary intervention).

Consequently, the unions have “grown up” and don’t reflexively reject any labour market adjustments required. They act as a mature partner, even through redundancies, working to minimise and help people move on.

Partnered with the Scandinavian “flexicurity” model, where it’s very easy to hire and very easy to fire people, but the state has strong support for unemployed people in between jobs (education, financial support), the labour market is probably the most efficient in the world.

Social democracy, yo. It works.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I agree except for my point in life and with all factors consider, I need it to be hard to fire lol

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If your flat, food, and education gets paid for by the government while you are in between jobs, why be afraid of being fired?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Because i live in NA and its expressly NOT like that and also we dont have any free shit to the extent thats a viable option to be able to just suddenly decide to go do.

Edit: my flat/food/education are nowhere near paid for, our welfare state sucks and and thats why I think Nordic countries are superior and we're American bootlicking fucking morons.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

ah sorry, I thought we are talking about a hypothetical where you are living in a system similar to the nordic ones.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Kudos to them for figuring this out. One worker might be convinced that they should only get a small amount of pay for their working hours. But gather a large group of workers in the same field of work, and the group is harder to manipulate into a low pay situation. Nice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's similar across Europe it sets a bare minimum. It doesn't work as effectively across Europe though.

In Italy for example there is a set of National contracts depending on the type sector. But there's plenty of ways to bend the rules.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

There are plenty of water to bend the rules in Sweden too. Sweden always sounds like the utopia when the press describes things like this.

Journalists also wants food on the table and roof over their heads I guess....