@pelle@elonmusk billionaire dislikes unions, but still does not like to pay fair wages and other essentials. As this is the case with almost every billionaire, unions are necessary.
Musk tries to block unions in every country. Hope they succeed in Scandinavia and Germany. There Elmo's minions got elected to the workers' council. However, after the next election this will change. "Workers of the world, unite!"
I don’t know when that took place in Sweden, but Toys “R” Us filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and closed its doors for good in 2018, after 70 yrs. of operation. (Thank you, Siri) So maybe this is a harbinger of Tesla’s future downfall.👊🏻🇸🇪
@lindamarie@VikingChieftain@pelle@elonmusk
That's only in the US - Toys R Us Canada was sold off separately and never ceased operations (apparently this happened in many other international locations as well). It's now owned by Canadian billionaire Doug Putman, while the American rights are owned by the conglomerate WHP Global.
Wikipedia says the American Toys R Us is in operation again, inside Macy's, and their website appears to be operational. Hope they're treating their workers well!
"The [Tesla] strike resembles the situation in 1995 when the Toys R Us toy chain started up in Sweden, refused to sign a collective agreement and hired only non-union workers. It resulted in a three-month strike by the retail-store employees union that snowballed into an all-out boycott as other unions joined in sympathy strikes. The company eventually agreed to sign collective agreements."
@VikingChieftain@lindamarie@pelle@elonmusk
I'm sure hardcore capitalists would say it's because the union made the business unprofitable, but of course there were undoubtedly thousands of profitable toy stores in Sweden the whole time.
Workers' rights laws and good unions allow small and medium-sized businesses to be more competitive with mega-corps, which somewhat ironically creates a "freer" market (increased consumer choice). I hope the current Toys R Us workers here can unionize!
One of the best things about following Ukraine since the very first day of the full scale invasion, is that I’ve learned so much about everything. Very much including the allies and the region. I’ve always been fond of Denmark and Sweden, but have never been to Finland or Baltic countries. I’m so impressed by their strong civil societies, and I love that labor unions are strong and fully supported in Nordic countries. Elmo is 🔩‘d…!!😄
As noted in my comment, Siri was my completely superficial source of info😄, and I haven’t yet read these good articles you and the Chief have provided. But it does sound as though they’re using brand name recognition rather than rebuilding —speaking of which, you mentioned Macy’s carries them internally. Hasn’t someone just made a bid to buy the troubled Macy’s brand? Aging department stores were struggling before Covid. Tough sector.
@lindamarie@VikingChieftain@pelle@elonmusk
We don't have Macy's in Canada (I don't think) - I'm pretty sure I've never even been in one. Sears Canada went down a few years back, and took all their workers' pensions with it - absolutely heinous. It hasn't really been replaced, although the malls are still hanging on - they can be kind of nice places to go during the Canadian winter. As more companies figure out to how sell online, malls might switch to more "social" businesses, or just die
@lindamarie@VikingChieftain@pelle@elonmusk
If you want to give it a dystopian spin, capitalism has just reached the level of low quality output that late socialism had. This time, centralism is not to blame but a culture of "just good enough to sell." In addition, it shows what happens when Silicon Valley people begin producing real things. Shitty products are our collective future. Who wants to be on that Space-X rocket when it fails?
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