Elon Musk And Tesla Are Having A Really Bad Time In Sweden

Good morning! It’s Friday, December 15, 2023, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know.

1st Gear: Tesla Vs. Sweden Intensifies

The mounting pressure on Tesla in Sweden and other neighboring northern European countries is becoming something the automaker can no longer ignore or work around. More and more groups and unions are joining in on collective action against the Austin, Texas-based automaker as it refuses to play ball with a collective bargaining agreement. From Futurism:

After unions stopped unloading Tesla vehicles from ships in Sweden last month over a labor disagreement with the Elon Musk-led company, the Swedish Transport Workers’ union announced today that it will stop collecting waste at Tesla workshops on Christmas Eve to turn up the pressure — unless, of course, the EV maker signs a collective agreement in Sweden.

[…]

“This kind of sympathy action is very unusual,” Tommy Wreeth, head of the transport union, told the Financial Times. “We are doing it now to protect the integrity of Swedish collective agreements and the Swedish labor market model.”

“Tesla cannot buck the norm in the Swedish labor market,” he added.

This all started back in late October, when workers in the IF Metall union went on strike, saying Tesla was not willing to bargain with the union over wages, pensions or insurance.

Elon Musk has long been an anti-union bastard and has refused to come to the table since IF Metall went on strike. He has gone so far as to call this strike “insane,” which isn’t helping anybody.

“I disagree with the idea of union, Musk said during an interview with the New York Times. To jog your memory, it was the same interview where he told advertisers to go “fuck” themselves. What a guy.

Unsurprisingly, the company’s inaction on the matter has led to an outpouring of solidarity, with unions across Sweden banding together against the carmaker, blocking imports at ports and refusing to repair damaged Tesla chargers, among other actions.

Postal workers have stopped delivering mail to the company, including license plates. A local court of appeal also overturned Tesla’s attempts to have license plates directly delivered from the Swedish Transport Agency.

[…]

Fast forward just over a week, and unions in Norway, Denmark, and Finland have now said they’re also ready to stop unloading cars from ships, according to the Financial Times.

And it’s not just workers. Denmark’s largest pension fund announced last week that it’s selling its Tesla stock holdings over Musk’s refusal to bargain.

Now, the Swedish Transport Workers’ union is leaving the carmaker with a literal trash pile by refusing to pick up garbage from the company.

Musk isn’t just picking a fight with Swedish workers — he’s drawing out a lengthy legal battle with much of northern Europe.

[…]

“Even if you are one of the richest people in the world, you can’t just make your own rules,” said Jan Villadsen, the chairman of the 3F union’s transport division, in a 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.”

At this point, I cannot understand why Musk is doing this, other than the fact he’s a goddamn son of a gun. I mean, the Tesla Model Y is Sweden’s best-selling vehicle, according to Clear Technica. This is madness, Musky.

2nd Gear: Musk Must Testify Again In SEC Twitter Probe

A federal judge tentatively ruled that Elon Musk must again testify for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s probe into his $44 billion takeover of Twitter. It’s being looked at as a victory for the SEC in its latest tussle with the world’s richest fella, and it’s easy to understand why. From Reuters:

During a hearing in San Francisco, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler quickly rejected arguments by Musk’s attorney that SEC officials do not have the authority to issue subpoenas, saying the agency has broad investigative powers and that no judge would “second guess” an SEC probe.

Beeler told the sides to figure out when Musk would sit for one more four-hour deposition, or she would issue an order.

“If you don’t work it out, then it’s in San Francisco in February,” she said during Thursday’s hearing.

The SEC sued Musk in October to compel the Tesla and SpaceX CEO to testify as part of an investigation into his 2022 purchase of social media giant Twitter, which he subsequently renamed X. Musk refused to attend a September interview for the probe, the SEC said.

The agency is examining whether Musk followed the law when filing the required paperwork with the agency about his purchases in Twitter stock, and whether his statements in relation to the deal were misleading.

Thursday’s face-off is the latest spat in a years-long feud between Musk and the top U.S. markets regulator, dating back to 2018 when he tweeted that he had “funding secured” to take the electric carmaker private.

The commission has been probing Musk’s Twitter takeover since April 2022. That’s when he first disclosed that he had purchased stock in the company. He gave the SEC documents for its probe and testified in July of that year.

Attorneys for the SEC say they now have more questions for Musk after getting new documents. They even sought to get additional testimony back in September, but unsurprisingly, Musk would not comply.

In response to the SEC’s October lawsuit, Musk’s lawyers urged Beeler to deny the SEC’s request, calling the probe misguided. “The SEC’s pursuit of Mr. Musk has crossed the line into harassment,” they wrote in a filing last month.

They also argued that, based on a clause in the constitution relating to official appointments, enforcement staff conducting the probe are not lawfully appointed and therefore lack power to issues subpoenas. The judge said she is inclined to take the SEC’s view on the issue but would take a closer look before issuing her order.

She also conceded the demands of long-running investigations can be “frustrating,” but still sided with the SEC minutes, emphatically dismissing Musk’s attorney’s arguments.

Elon, buddy, just stop doing shit that teeters or crosses the line into illegal. It’s really not that hard. I make it just about every day without doing something illegal.

3rd Gear: GM Cuts 1,300 Workers At Michigan Plants

General Motors is laying off 1,314 employees split between two Michigan factories because production is ending on some vehicles.

GM filed a WARN notice posted Thursday that said it will cut 945 jobs starting Jan. 1 at its Orion Assembly plant in Orion Towship.

Those cuts are related to GM’s October announcement that it was delaying production of two all-electric pickups at the plant by a full year, thereby idling the factory at the end of this year and transferring about 1,000 workers to other GM facilities in the state.

GM had planned to start production on the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV next year at Orion, but GM said that it will “retime the conversion” of Orion Assembly plant to EV truck production and restart the plant in late 2025 instead.

Those aren’t the only cuts, though.

The other WARN notice indicated that GM will cut 369 jobs at Lansing Grand River Assembly/Stamping as GM ends production of the Camaro muscle car built there. The cuts will happen in phases that begin Jan. 1 and end in March, according to the WARN notice.

Luckily, Freep says GM will offer impacted employees jobs elsewhere in the company, which is nice.

The news, of course, comes fairly recently after GM employees ratified their new contract between the United Auto Workers union and the automaker.

4th Gear: Cruise Lays Off A Quarter Of Its Workforce

The cuts aren’t over for General Motors yet. The automaker’s self-driving vehicle unit Cruise is slashing 24 percent of its workforce as it restructures operations after a crash that dragged a woman 20 feet down the road, forcing it to halt U.S. testing. From Reuters:

GM’s money-losing robotaxi unit has been in turmoil for weeks. Cruise pulled all its U.S. vehicles from self-driving testing after California suspended its driverless testing permit following an October accident. The unit’s CEO Kyle Vogt and co-founder Dan Kan both resigned last month.

The layoffs of 900 of its 3,800 employees are primarily in commercial operations and related corporate functions. Cruise said it had also ended work for some “contingent workers who support our driverless operations.”

[…]

“This reflects our new future and a more deliberate go-to-market path, meaning less immediate need for field, commercial operations and corporate staffing,” Cruise said of the job cuts.

On October 2 (my birthday!) a pedestrian was hit by a car and thrown into the path of a Cruise vehicle. It then hit her and dragged her 20 feet. California, understandably, suspended the testing permit. Shortly after, Cruise halted all U.S. testing operations.

On Wednesday, Cruise fired nine executives, including its chief operating officer and chief legal and policy officer amid an external investigation led by law firm Quinn Emmanuel into the accident and Cruise’s response.

GM said last month it would cut costs at Cruise, which lost more than $700 million in the third quarter and more than $8 billion since 2016.

“GM supports the difficult employment decisions made by Cruise as it reflects their more deliberate path forward, with safety as the north star,” a GM spokesman said.

In November, Cruise said it would eventually re-launch in one unspecified city before expanding. Previously, Cruise had touted ambitious plans to expand to more cities, offering fully autonomous taxi rides.

The driverless vehicle industry depends heavily on public trust and cooperation from regulators. Right now, Cruise doesn’t really have either of those things, which makes life hard for the nascent company. Maybe you shouldn’t have dragged a woman down the street, Cruise.

Reverse: A Good Move