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IF Metall excludes union members who continue to work for Tesla Sweden
Amidst the tense atmosphere in Sweden, a notable portion of Tesla employees have continued to attend work as usual and refused to strike. These include some employees who are members of trade union IF Metall, which is currently clashing with Tesla Sweden over the EV maker’s lack of a collective agreement. These workers, as per a recent report, will now be paying a price.
As noted in a report from Dagens Arbete (DA), the trade union shared a rather difficult decision on Wednesday. As per Martin Gunnarsson, IF Metall’s union secretary, the union board has decided to expel members who are refusing to strike at Tesla Sweden. The decision was the result of a process that involved the union surveying which of its members continued to work at Tesla Sweden despite the strike.
“We have taken the decision to exclude a number of members who have broken the strike, members who are employed by Tesla and who, during the period that the conflict has been going on, actively broke the strike. They have simply worked as usual despite the ongoing conflict,” Gunnarsson noted.
Considering that IF Metall’s announcement of its survey was made in mid-November, it would appear that the process of surveying the union’s members at Tesla lasted over a month. It should be noted that Gunnarsson did not disclose how many members were actually expelled, nor did he share how many jobs were involved.
“We cannot go along with that. We don’t do that based on the premise that it’s about the integrity of both those who strike and those who don’t… Since the trade unions were formed once upon a time, this has been a super important issue. You must be loyal to your organization,” Gunnarsson noted.
When asked by the publication about what the affected IF Metall members would say about the union’s decision, the official noted that members who refused to participate in the organization’s anti-Tesla Sweden efforts were simply too afraid to strike themselves.
IF Metall: Several strike breakers have now been excluded – never happened before!
There are ~130 car mechanics at Tesla Sweden!
IF metall have claimed that they have >50% members (>65)
What we know is that very few actually strike, although IF Metall always tells the Swedish… pic.twitter.com/ZYaev8Jbfl— Nicklas ???T???♻️? (@NicklasNilsso14) December 21, 2023
“It must not be underestimated that they have been faced with a demand from day one from the employer. To either choose Tesla or to choose IF Metall. If you have wanted to strike, then you have behaved in word and deed in a way that means you are not welcome back at Tesla. Many people think collective agreements are good, and something you want. But you are simply too afraid to strike yourself,” he said.
Gunnarsson also admitted that IF Metall has found it quite strange that some of its members have continued to work at Tesla despite the union’s ongoing efforts against the company. The official also noted that the union’s decision to expel some of its members was a decision that was not made lightly.
“It is no national secret that we think it is very strange and unfortunate that some people act in this way. Strike-breaking has occurred in various forms during the existence of trade unions. On the other hand, in Sweden, there has been no similar strike-breaking, where the employer has urged the employees to continue working. Forcing an exclusion case in this way has never happened before. It’s not something you do with great joy,” Gunnarsson noted.
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Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, jumping over 3 percent during the day and finishing at $489.88.
The price beats the previous record close, which was $479.86.
Shares have had a crazy year, dipping more than 40 percent from the start of the year. The stock then started to recover once again around late April, when its price started to climb back up from the low $200 level.
This week, Tesla started to climb toward its highest levels ever, as it was revealed on Sunday that the company was testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin. The spike in value pushed the company’s valuation to $1.63 trillion.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
It is the seventh-most valuable company on the market currently, trailing Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
Shares closed up $14.57 today, up over 3 percent.
The stock has gone through a lot this year, as previously mentioned. Shares tumbled in Q1 due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which pulled his attention away from his companies and left a major overhang on their valuations.
However, things started to rebound halfway through the year, and as the government started to phase out the $7,500 tax credit, demand spiked as consumers tried to take advantage of it.
Q3 deliveries were the highest in company history, and Tesla responded to the loss of the tax credit with the launch of the Model 3 and Model Y Standard.
Additionally, analysts have announced high expectations this week for the company on Wall Street as Robotaxi continues to be the focus. With autonomy within Tesla’s sights, things are moving in the direction of Robotaxi being a major catalyst for growth on the Street in the coming year.
Elon Musk
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs says.
Tesla is in the process of rolling out its Robotaxi platform to areas outside of Austin and the California Bay Area. It has plans to launch in five additional cities, including Houston, Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
However, the company’s expansion is not what the focus needs to be, according to Delaney. It’s the speed of deployment.
The analyst said:
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Profitability will come as the Robotaxi fleet expands. Making that money will be dependent on when Tesla can initiate rides in more areas, giving more customers access to the program.
There are some additional things that the company needs to make happen ahead of the major Robotaxi expansion, one of those things is launching driverless rides in Austin, the first city in which it launched the program.
This week, Tesla started testing driverless Robotaxi rides in Austin, as two different Model Y units were spotted with no occupants, a huge step in the company’s plans for the ride-sharing platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
CEO Elon Musk has been hoping to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis in Austin for several months, first mentioning the plan to have them out by the end of 2025 in September. He confirmed on Sunday that Tesla had officially removed vehicle occupants and started testing truly unsupervised rides.
Although Safety Monitors in Austin have been sitting in the passenger’s seat, they have still had the ability to override things in case of an emergency. After all, the ultimate goal was safety and avoiding any accidents or injuries.
Goldman Sachs reiterated its ‘Neutral’ rating and its $400 price target. Delaney said, “Tesla is making progress with its autonomous technology,” and recent developments make it evident that this is true.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets bold Robotaxi prediction from Wall Street firm
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a bold Robotaxi prediction from Morgan Stanley, which anticipates a dramatic increase in the size of the company’s autonomous ride-hailing suite in the coming years.
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Percoco dug into the Robotaxi fleet and its expansion in the coming years in his latest note, released on Tuesday. The firm expects Tesla to increase the Robotaxi fleet size to 1,000 vehicles in 2026. However, that’s small-scale compared to what they expect from Tesla in a decade.
Tesla expands Robotaxi app access once again, this time on a global scale
By 2035, Morgan Stanley believes there will be one million Robotaxis on the road across multiple cities, a major jump and a considerable fleet size. We assume this means the fleet of vehicles Tesla will operate internally, and not including passenger-owned vehicles that could be added through software updates.
He also listed three specific catalysts that investors should pay attention to, as these will represent the company being on track to achieve its Robotaxi dreams:
- Opening Robotaxi to the public without a Safety Monitor. Timing is unclear, but it appears that Tesla is getting closer by the day.
- Improvement in safety metrics without the Safety Monitor. Tesla’s ability to improve its safety metrics as it scales miles driven without the Safety Monitor is imperative as it looks to scale in new states and cities in 2026.
- Cybercab start of production, targeted for April 2026. Tesla’s Cybercab is a purpose-built vehicle (no steering wheel or pedals, only two seats) that is expected to be produced through its state-of-the-art unboxed manufacturing process, offering further cost reductions and thus accelerating adoption over time.
Robotaxi stands to be one of Tesla’s most significant revenue contributors, especially as the company plans to continue expanding its ride-hailing service across the world in the coming years.
Its current deployment strategy is controlled and conservative to avoid any drastic and potentially program-ruining incidents.
So far, the program, which is active in Austin and the California Bay Area, has been widely successful.
Tesla stock closes at all-time high on heels of Robotaxi progress
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
