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In Sweden, approximately seventy automotive technicians persist to confront one of the world's wealthiest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action at the American automaker's 10 Swedish service centers has now reached its second anniversary, and there is little sign for a resolution.

One striking worker has been at the Tesla picket line starting from the autumn of 2023.

"It has been a difficult period," remarks the 39-year-old. With Sweden's cold seasonal conditions arrives, it is expected to become even tougher.

The mechanic devotes each Monday alongside a fellow worker, positioned near an electric vehicle service center within an industrial park located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies shelter via a mobile construction vehicle, plus hot beverages & light meals.

But it remains operations continue normally nearby, at which the workshop appears to operate in full swing.

The strike concerns a matter that reaches to the core of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the authority for worker organizations to bargain for wages and working terms representing their members. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned industrial relations in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Today some 70% of Swedish workers belong to labor organizations, while 90% are covered by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages across the nation are rare.

It's an arrangement supported across the board. "We favor the ability to negotiate directly with the unions and sign labor contracts," says a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses employer group.

However the electric car company has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal chief executive Elon Musk has said he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply don't like any arrangement that establishes a sort of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed an audience at an event in 2023. "I think labor groups try to generate negativity in a company."

Tesla entered the Scandinavian market back in 2014, and IF Metall has for years sought to secure a labor contract with the company.

"Yet they wouldn't reply," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "And we got the belief that they tried to avoid or evade discussing this with us."

She states the union ultimately found no alternative than to announce industrial action, beginning on 27 October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to issue a warning," says the union leader. "The company usually signs the agreement."

But not on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, originally from Latvia, began employment with the automaker in 2021. He claims that wages & work terms frequently dependent on the discretion of supervisors.

He remembers an evaluation meeting at which he states he was refused an annual pay rise on grounds he was "failing to meet Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was reported to have been rejected for increased compensation due to having an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers went out on strike. The company employed approximately 130 technicians working at the time the strike was called. IF Metall states currently approximately 70 of their represented workers are participating in the action.

The automaker has long since replaced these with replacement staff, a situation that has no precedent since the Great Depression.

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] publicly & methodically," states German Bender, a researcher at Arena Idé, a think tank supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not illegal, this being important to recognize. But it goes against all traditional norms. But Tesla shows no concern for conventions.

"They aim to become convention challengers. Thus when somebody tells them, hey, you are breaking a standard, they see that as praise."

The automaker's local division declined requests for interview in an email mentioning "all-time high deliveries".

Indeed, the automaker has given just a single press discussion in the two years after the industrial action started.

In March 2024, the local division's "country lead", the executive, informed a business paper that it suited the company better to avoid a collective agreement, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and give them optimal conditions".

Mr Stark rejected that the choice not to enter a labor contract was one made by US leadership in the US. "We have a mandate to make our own such choices," he said.

The union is not completely alone in its fight. The strike has been supported by a number of labor organizations.

Port workers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Norway & Finland, decline to handle the company's vehicles; rubbish is not collected from Tesla's Swedish facilities; while newly built power points are not being linked to power networks in the country.

There is an example near the capital's airport, at which twenty charging units remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There's an alternative power point six miles from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to continue to buy our cars, we can service our vehicles, we can power our electric cars."

With stakes high for all parties, it's hard to see a resolution to the stand-off. The union faces the danger of establishing a pattern if it concedes the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

"The concern is how this could expand," states the researcher, "and ultimately {erode