On 27 October this year it was a year since the affiliated workers of the IF Metall trade union of the Swedish branch of Tesla (TM Sweden) began a strike by refusing the company to negotiate a collective agreement. Although the fight against the all-powerful Elon Musk may seem like David’s fight against Goliath, IF Metall and its 300,000 affiliates are a hard rock. Its actions, including the continuation of the one-year strike, the cross-sectoral solidarity of Scandinavian and international workers, as well as strong mobilisations, have turned this conflict into a firewall in the so-called Green Transition in the face of corporate abuses by large companies.

We are talking about this conflict and the transition with Arturo Vázquez, Trade Union Defender of IF Metall, who is responsible for defending the rights of members, conflict resolution and mediation.

How did the conflict with Tesla, which has lasted until today?TM Sweden was established in the village of Upplands Väsby, north of
Stockholm, to boost the sale of cars and offer maintenance and repair services. These tasks are very specialized because of the technical complexity of Tesla vehicles. We tried to negotiate a collective agreement with the company, but it was not possible.

Why is it so important for IF Metal to sign a collective agreement?
In order to understand that it is very important for workers, we need to know the Swedish context. In Sweden there is no inter-branch minimum wage and many other details of labour relations are laid down in collective agreements. There is also a public institution to conduct negotiations between employers and trade unions: Medtrailers-Institutet.

Given the importance of this point, did Tesla make any concrete objection or complete amendment to the conventions?
Nothing, the company didn't want anything! From the very beginning, Tesla's people didn't want any kind of collective bargaining. They do not want the people who are working to have the right to give their opinion. For us, the most important thing about the conventions is codetermination, the right to give a free opinion for a better working environment. For our part, we always tried to make every effort to ensure dialogue, but they did not want anything! However, we have already seen other American companies coming to Sweden saying that they did not want an agreement, but in the end they have also done so.

What he said does not coincide with Tesla's image, which says that the company is cool, green and modern, nor with Elon Muskena, who has self-proclaimed defender of freedom of expression.
In Sweden, Tesla's public image is deteriorating. Young people who wanted to work for Tesla no longer show the same interest, as the working conditions and treatment of workers in the company have come to light.

A year of resistance is no small matter. What have been the most complicated times?
Things have happened in Sweden that have never happened. In the event of a strike, staff may not be recruited for replacement. Tesla has taken advantage of the free movement of workers in the European Union to bring people from Eastern Europe and put them to work. The situation is very serious. Moreover, if Tesla does not sign the agreement, there is a risk that other employers will follow him.

Despite the bad moments, you have also experienced positive situations, right?
No doubt. Solidarity has been terrible. The unions in Scandinavia (Norway, Denmark and Finland) joined in the fight against pension reform. At first, shipowners and port workers said that they were not going to download a single Tesla car-laden ship in their ports. A boycott has been organised. Tesla had to look for an alternative path and now brings his cars into the trucks of Germany. In addition, Swedish electricity unions do not set up any new loaders, and the postal unions do not give letters to Tesla either.

How has all this influenced Tesla?The workshops
are unable to maintain the maintenance of cars. The waiting time for repair or maintenance is several months and they are becoming more and more complicated.

Despite the impacts, Musk seems to have superpowers. Why do you think they're going to dominate Tesla? We are capable of resisting for
500 years! We have the support of the trade unions in Sweden, Scandinavia, Europe and the rest of the world. We will continue to fight until the end.

If we look at your struggle from a larger scale, it's a consequence of a green and digital transition, dominated by big transnational corporations, and with public institutions limited to being mere facilitators. In addition, they are forming megalomaniacs, Musk, Bezos, Gates and others. What do you think?
All of them are capitalists who want to maximize their profits. They want to own the market. In the case of Elon Musk, he sees himself as the future owner of the car market.

But one of the most important things is to ask if the green transition really is green. Is it a transition through the environment? I do not think so. It's Greenwashing. For example, is the electric vehicle a green car? Polluting cars are sold as green cars, but manufacturing materials come from countries where people work as a slave. There is no effective battery recycling system and, finally, they are exported to impoverished countries. There is no circularity. We need global technical progress to recycle and not destroy nature anymore.

There are also proposals aimed at reducing the car park, as well as reducing the number of vehicles privados.Para IF Metall the green
transition is very important, but we admit that many of our affiliates work in sectors that are destroying the planet. Greta Thunberg has said things as they are, but then nothing has happened. Democratic states must commit themselves to a change in the pattern of production and consumption. There must be limits and planning for production and consumption to prevent the destruction of the environment. Our position is that the technique must be better used to move towards a truly circular economy.

Finally, I should like to ask you about the commitment to green transition in northern Sweden, the reindustrialisation corridor from Kiruna to Luleious. Major investments and more workers are needed in the north, and the extreme right of the Swedish Democrats strongly criticises the fact that these democrats are migrants. At the same time, the battery company NorthVolt wants to reduce the number of employees by 20%. How do you see the future of the green transition in Sweden?
NorthVolt will dismiss 2,500 workers, mainly foreigners. And you have to produce batteries without people dying at work.

How?
Four NorthVolt workers have died in the city centre and the causes of death are still unknown. It is not normal for us for workers in a new factory to die.

Will the transition work?
I think it will work, but the risk is capitalism. To organize something so big, you need to have previous experience. The investments made have been very rapid, too many.