In a recent development, Tesla investor KLP, Norway’s largest pension company, is considering filing a shareholder proposal to address Elon Musk’s reluctance to engage in collective bargaining at the electric vehicle maker’s 2024 annual shareholder meeting. Tesla has been facing protests and blockades from Swedish trade union IF Metall and its allies since October last year. Despite this, Musk expressed optimism about the situation in Sweden, stating that he feels good about the future. However, Kiran Aziz, KLP’s head of responsible investments, believes that Musk is underestimating the gravity of the situation in Sweden.
According to Aziz, Musk’s statement about the ‘storm passing’ is a way to downplay the ongoing conflict and the importance of collective bargaining in the Nordic labor model. Aziz also mentioned that Tesla did not respond to a letter from KLP in December, and the company is now exploring how to escalate the matter. This may involve filing a shareholder proposal at Tesla’s annual general meeting. KLP plans to pursue this issue independently of Musk’s stance and is urging Tesla to be more responsive to investor queries.
On the other hand, Tesla has asserted that its employees in Sweden do not require a collective agreement as they already receive benefits on par with or better than those provided by a union. KLP currently holds 900,000 TSLA shares, and Tesla has not issued a response regarding KLP’s intentions at the time of writing.