Gary Zhou 
Key Points
- 💼 Sympathy Strike Against Tesla: Denmark’s 3F union initiated a sympathy strike against Tesla due to the lack of a collective agreement in Sweden between Tesla and union IF Metall.
- 🤝 Clash Over Labor Agreements: Tesla and IF Metall have been in a clash over labor agreements in Sweden, with no resolution in sight.
- 📉 3F’s Strong Stance: Despite 3F’s strong public stance against Tesla, the union holds a substantial stake in Tesla (TSLA) through its pension company, PensionDanmark, amounting to about DKK 400 million ($57.8 million).
- 💰 Profitable Investment: TSLA shares, though not reaching the highs of 2020-2021, are still up 94% year-to-date, indicating that 3F’s pension company has made significant profits from its Tesla investment.
- 🤷♂️ No Immediate Divestment: 3F’s head, Jan Villadsen, expressed that despite the conflict, the union won’t immediately divest its TSLA shares, citing obligations to pension fund holders.
- 🌐 Musk’s Response: Elon Musk shows no inclination to strike a deal with IF Metall, describing the situation in Sweden as “insane.”
- 📈 Stock Performance: Despite the clash and sympathy strikes, Tesla’s stock performance remains notable, with TSLA shares still on the rise.
Just a few days ago, one of Denmark’s largest unions, 3F, announced that it would be initiating a sympathy strike against Tesla over the electric vehicle maker’s lack of a collective agreement in Sweden. Tesla and union IF Metall have been clashing for several weeks now, and neither side seems ready to back down.
Jan Villadsen, head of 3F Transport, had some strong words to say against Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk. “Even if you are one of the richest people in the world, you can’t just make your own rules. 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,” Villadsen said in a comment to the Financial Times.
In a recent report, Frihedsbrevet (The Freedom Letter) revealed that while 3F is taking a strong public stance against Tesla, the union actually holds a pretty substantial stake in the electric vehicle maker through PensionDanmark, its pension company. The publication noted that to date, 3F holds about DKK 400 million ($57.8 million) worth of TSLA shares.
Despite the electric vehicle maker’s stock not seeing a rise as insane as in 2020-2021, where the company’s market cap grew from about $117 billion to over $1 trillion, TSLA shares are still up 94% year-to-date. With this in mind, it would appear that 3F’s pension company has so far made some good money investing in Tesla. Interestingly, when asked by Frihedsbrevet about 3F’s TSLA stake, Villadsen noted that he’s not going to start saying that 3F can’t invest in TSLA anymore.
“Well, Rome wasn’t built in one day. Because we sent a conflict notice today, it’s not like I’m going around the world saying that now they can’t invest in Tesla anymore. You don’t sell shares for hundreds of millions in one fell swoop.
“We also have an obligation to those who have their pension funds here, so it must be done properly. So it’s not something I’m going to call an extraordinary board meeting about, if that’s what you’re asking. But of course it comes up at the board meetings; that’s how it is,” Villadsen said.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, for his part, has not shown any signs that he is willing to strike a deal with IF Metall in Sweden. In a response to a post on X about the matter, Musk noted that the situation unfolding in Sweden is insane. IF Metall, on the other hand, has been seeing sympathy strikes spreading to several other industries in the country.
