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.”

  • interceder270@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    190
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    10 months ago

    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.

    • Dra@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      96
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      I would love to see the number of people upvoting this who are genuinely working class.(remember, every downvote on my reply is a middle class person who does not practice what they preach)

      • zuch0698o@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        40
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        Middle class is the working class and I support our unions. When I worked for one I got a fair wage and just because I’m not in one currently doesn’t mean you cant support them.

      • bamboo@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        34
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        The middle class is a made up idea designed to divide the working class. You either have to work for a living or you don’t, and slightly higher income and a bit of savings doesn’t make your function in society entirely different even if it allows you more comfort.

        • Dra@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          37
          ·
          10 months ago

          Nope. Totally different universes. Middle class people in the west like to roleplay as downtrodden but none of them have worked actual working class jobs and all enjoy at least some security of education

          • bamboo@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            21
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            10 months ago

            So you’re trying to tell me that because I have a degree, work in an office job, and have some savings, that I’m not working class? If I lost my job I’d have a few months in savings before I’d be digging into retirement funds, and even then I’d probably be completely broke within a year or two. That’s certainly a lot more comfort than someone who would miss rent next month, but ultimately I still am dependent on an employer and selling my labor, I do not have anywhere near enough money to live on dividends or interest payments. I see much more in common with someone making minimum wage than I do with the owner class who lives on rent, interest, and dividends without working.

            • Dra@lemmy.zip
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              28
              ·
              10 months ago

              You dont think that’s middle class? Because you have to work to not run out of money?

              So do most of the upper classes. What you have the luxury of an education that allows them some freedom to work, and the comforts of knowledge work that allow them to not have to sacrifice their physical health and, most likely an income bracket that at least affords you some choice in where you live.

              The point is that high levels of migration, effectively forces your own countries working classes to compete with and deal with tons of cheap foreign labour coming in, with little or no conformity to the parent culture because it hasn’t been facilitated. The middle classes traditionally laugh at the working classes and claim they are being “racist”, “stupid” and “lazy” for complaining about this arrangement, while mostly avoiding it’s effects themselves.

              This voting is a result of the left wing, middle classes being unable to grasp the obvious effects of their voting record, instead pretending to each other in echo chambers that they are the real working classes and how shocking all this right wing-tilt is. Throwing the incumbent working class culture under a bus.

              • barsoap@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                10 months ago

                You can call it middle class if you want. But it’s also working class. Even most petite bourgeois are working class as they cannot live off capital interest.

              • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                10 months ago

                You either live off wealth or you live off income. If you live off income you are a worker and workers need to stand together.

                • Dra@lemmy.zip
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  10 months ago

                  This is, as I have described above, all well and good to say…

                  …Apart from when you repeatedly support policies that further squeeze extant working classes, then have the gall to do this vague virtue signalling of “standing together”. It’s hypocritical.

                  You are doing local workers in the country a disservice and the owning classes a great help to price them out of existence.

      • bigFab@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        20
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        10 months ago

        Ofc every upvote is working class. There is no other reason I would upvote that comment

      • Roflmasterbigpimp@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        10 months ago

        Ah yes. I might have missed the memo where you became the Judge of who is working class or not.

        (And remember if you answer my comment you admit that you have no Idea what you are talking about and are just here to troll 🥸)

      • prole@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        .(remember, every downvote on my reply is a middle class person who does not practice what they preach)

        Yeah no, that’s not how this works. You’re being downvoted for posting a stupid comment.

        • Dra@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          10 months ago

          It’s an accurate observation, and it’s not so much that I consider myself smart, it’s more that I note most negative replies generally refuse to acknowledge the underlying issue (read: dumb).

      • cro_magnon_gilf@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        The reason they have so many downvotes is because they buy them cheap on Amazon.com

        OnT: I’m Swedish and it’s good to see a proper strike, but the real thing motivating the unions on this isn’t workers rights or anything. The unions are subservient to the national labour union organisation, LO, who’ll do the shadiest shit to get more power for themselves, and don’t care about working conditions in the slightest. The only thing that’s a red line for them, is when corporations refuse to take part in the charade, by not signing a collective agreement.

        You have to pay some lip-service, even if it costs you. If you do, the unions will be on your side against the workers.

  • ocassionallyaduck@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    177
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    10 months ago

    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.

    • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      63
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      10 months ago

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

      • fitgse@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        29
        ·
        10 months ago

        And don’t change their goals every 4-8 years. It is hard to accomplish a 10 year project if you can’t guarantee you’ll still be working on it in 10 years.

      • ApexHunter@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        18
        ·
        10 months ago

        Wtf are you on about? We give SpaceX nowhere near the funds we give NASA.

        We gave NASA $25 billion this year.

        SpaceX was awarded a $2.9B contract to fund the entire “land starship on the moon” program (a non cost+ contact I might add) spanning multiple years. They launched two sets of crew to the iss this year, at an estimated cost of ~700m. They have had one cargo mission this year at a cost of about $150m.

        • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          24
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          10 months ago

          Let’s give NASA that 2.9b for a new program then. That’s a 10% budget increase.

          Hell give me $2.9b and I’ll find people to put us on the moon. Elon didn’t do shit except take tax money, and give it to smart people, while keeping a cut for himself.

          • ApexHunter@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            9 months ago

            Do it then. Nobody else in the industry seems able to.

            When it comes to space programs and launch costs/waste, SpaceX is at the bottom of the list. Nobody puts stuff in space cheaper than they do. And not by a small margin.

            For comparison, the cost for SLS to launch into earth orbit is $4.1B. TO LAUNCH. Development costs for that program have exceeded $27B. They have been working on it since 2011. It has launched exactly one time over a year ago.

            The entire contract to SpaceX to fully develop and launch a moon lander is less than the cost of launching a single SLS rocket.

            • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              9 months ago

              Alright I’ll do it when I get the cheque.

              The stuff they put into space cheaply is actually debris from their poorly built launch pads that ricocheted off a school bus.

    • TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      13
      ·
      10 months ago

      His real skill is getting people to work hard. And he brought the iterative design he learned in software development to the physical world. Pared with family money, hire the right people to do the work, and you get SpaceX.

      • irreticent@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        10 months ago

        His real skill is getting people to work hard.

        Did you really just say that on a post about how his workers are striking?! LOL!

  • orclev@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    130
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 months 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?!”

  • set_secret@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    93
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    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.

    • kandoh@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      He’s actually referring to the sympathy strikers. No Tesla can get a licence plate or registered in solidarity with the autoworkers.

  • wandermind@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    81
    ·
    10 months ago

    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.

    • TylerDurdenJunior@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      28
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months 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.

    • Anon819450514@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      41
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      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!

      • Syldon@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        21
        ·
        10 months ago

        Good for them. This abuse of workers collective bargaining rights is just divide and conquer. Unions cannot work if you allow them to disappear.

      • no banana@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        10 months ago

        It has to be said that the unions in Sweden do not want minimum wage because it would give employers another argument against them in negotiations. Even Elon uses it in countries that do have it.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    68
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 months ago

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

  • Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    66
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    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.

      • Fades@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        do you think that will make him go away? Stop shining a light on the dark and disgusting in the hopes that they just disappear? Doesn’t work like that pal.

        If you actually cared, there are ways of stopping phony stark from coming up in your feed, yet here you are

    • orrk@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      dude he HAS a massive PR team to keep his image up, hell that PR Team is the only reason why people had this image of him in the first place

      • DingoBilly@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        10 months ago

        He has literally fired most (not sure if all?) of Tesla’s PR team in the past as well as Twitter’s. Guy doesn’t believe PR is worthwhile.

        • orrk@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          ya, he has a personal PR team, why keep the others around? you want proof of his PR team, tho? take a look at the massive wave of “Musk is irl Iron Man articles” and how they always include a specific set of phrases and accomplishments to list.

    • Something_Complex@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      10 months ago

      For a while there I had hope he was doing it so he could run as a republican and then do a flip on them when he got elected.

      Just started passing things usually called literal.

      This was 5 years ago

    • GaMEChld@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      10 months ago

      Evidently he has Asperger’s, so there might be a non-nefarious explanation for his lack of understanding of social things and why he is both simultaneously so successful/creative but also completely socially inept.

      He might be actually incapable of understanding others’ perspectives.

      • deur@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        Not this again, really just shitting on Autistic people by saying stuff like this.

    • Wes_Dev@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      10 months 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.

  • deegeese@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    49
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 months ago

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

    • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      10 months ago

      More like ‘I’m a sociopath who thinks petty things like empathy and basic human rights are stupid. Now get back to work, my servants are meant to be seen, not heard.’

  • Zink@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    47
    ·
    10 months 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.

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    47
    ·
    10 months ago

    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!

    • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      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.

      • lud@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        I think they are referring to his actual salary and not his “worth”.

  • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 months ago

    “Waaaah my precious market forces are working against me.”

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

  • Jaysyn@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    10 months ago

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