Tesla Inc.’s labor dispute is expanding to Denmark, where the country’s largest union said it will halt shipments of the cars to Sweden in support of striking workers in the biggest Nordic country.
Harbor workers and drivers at the Danish 3F union will in about two weeks stop offloading Sweden-bound cars in Danish harbors and driving them to Sweden, preventing Tesla from circumventing a weeks-long blockade there.
The Danish union filed a strike warning notice for to the Danish Employers’ Association on Dec. 4, it said in a statement on Tuesday. The protest won’t affect Tesla’s operations in Denmark, a spokesperson for the union said by phone.
In Sweden, Tesla has for more than a month been locked in a dispute with labor unions after the carmaker refused to sign a collective bargaining agreement. The strike has spread through sympathy actions, including stopping the delivery of mail to Tesla as well as trash pickups. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has called the Swedish labor action “insane.”
“Even if you are one of the richest people in the world, you can’t just make your own rules,” Jan Villadsen, the chairman of the 3F union’s transport division, said in the statement. “We have some agreements on the labor market in the Nordics, and you have to comply with them if you want to do business here.”
There’s a risk that sympathy action could also spread to Norway, where the United Federation of Trade Unions considers a similar blockade. The group is monitoring the situation, spokesman John Trygve Tollefsen said by phone on Tuesday.