Tesla on Monday sued the Swedish Transport Agency and the post office due to a union strike which blocked the supply of license plates of this car manufacturer in the country. Workers strike to demand that the non-unionized carmaker signed a collective agreementwhich is standard practice in Sweden.
But the Swedish Transport Agency says it has already received a preliminary ruling from a district court ordering it to agree to Tesla’s request to take the license plates within seven days or face heavy fines.
The Associated Press reported Monday that Tesla, which has delivered more than 9,000 electric cars to Swedish customers by 2022, called the Swedish Transport Agency’s current actions an attack on American society. Tesla’s lawsuit reportedly calls on the district court to enjoin the Swedish Transport Agency a fine of $95,803 (i.e. over two million crowns) and at the same time enabled Tesla get your license plates back. Registrations are being held up because workers at the state postal service PostNord stopped supplying Tesla with signs after its employees joined the strike.
The lawsuit alleges that the Swedish Transport Agency refused the automaker’s request to pick up the license plates themselves or to send them by another route. According to Reuters Tesla filed two lawsuits: one to the Swedish Transport Agency and the other to PostNord.
Ann-Sofie Masthová, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Transport Agency, confirmed the filing of the lawsuit and revealed the court’s interim decision: “The Swedish Transport Agency has now received an interim decision from the Norrköping District Court that within seven days they agree to let Tesla take the registration plates directly from our plate manufacturer. The decision shows that our brand maker has announced that it is ready supply the brands directly to Tesla provided that the Swedish Transport Agency agrees. We at the Swedish Transport Agency now have to assess this announcement and deduce what consequences it will have for us and what measures may need to be taken to implement the decision. At this time, it is too early to give any definite conclusions.’
Not exactly union-friendly, Tesla has resisted signing collective bargaining agreements, saying its workers already have the same or better conditions than the unions are proposing.
Source: engadget.com
