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In Sweden, approximately 70 automotive technicians persist to confront one of the world's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This labor strike targeting the American automaker's 10 Scandinavian service centers has now entered two years of duration, with minimal indication of a settlement.

One striking worker has been at the Tesla picket line since October 2023.

"It has been a difficult period," remarks the 39-year-old. And as the nation's chilly seasonal conditions arrives, it is expected to become even tougher.

The mechanic spends each Monday alongside a fellow worker, standing outside an electric vehicle garage within an industrial park in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, supplies shelter in the form of a mobile construction vehicle, as well as hot beverages and light meals.

But it remains business as usual across the road, at which the service facility appears to be at full capacity.

This industrial action concerns a matter that goes to the heart of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the authority of trade unions to bargain for pay & working terms representing their members. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has supported industrial relations in Sweden for nearly a century.

Currently approximately 70% of Scandinavia's employees belong to labor organizations, while ninety percent fall under by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

It's an arrangement supported by all parties. "We favor the right to negotiate freely with the unions and sign labor contracts," states Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

However Tesla has disrupted established practices. Vocal chief executive the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the idea of labor organizations. "I simply don't like any arrangement which creates a kind of lords and peasants sort of thing," he informed an audience in New York last year. "In my view the unions attempt to create negativity within businesses."

The automaker came to the Scandinavian market starting in 2014, and IF Metall has long wanted to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"Yet they wouldn't respond," states the union president, the organization's president. "We formed the impression that they tried to hide away or not discuss the matter with our representatives."

She states the union ultimately saw no other option than to announce a strike, beginning in late October, last year. "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 of Latvian origin, began employment for Tesla several years ago. He claims that wages and work terms frequently dependent on the whim of supervisors.

He recalls a performance review where he states he was denied a salary increase on grounds he was "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a colleague was said to be turned down for a pay rise because having an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers participated on strike. The company had some 130 mechanics employed at the time the industrial action was initiated. The union states currently around seventy of their represented workers are participating in the action.

Tesla has long since replaced these with new workers, for which that has no precedent since the era of the Great Depression.

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] openly & methodically," states German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not against the law, this being important to understand. But it violates all traditional practices. But the company doesn't care for conventions.

"They aim to become norm breakers. So if somebody tells them, listen, you are breaking a norm, they see that as praise."

The company's Swedish subsidiary refused attempts for comment in an email citing "record vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the automaker has granted just a single press discussion during the entire period after the industrial action began.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, the executive, told a financial publication that it suited the organization more not to have a union contract, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and give them the best possible terms".

Mr Stark rejected that the choice to avoid a labor contract was determined at Tesla headquarters overseas. "We have authorization to make our own such choices," he said.

IF Metall is not entirely isolated in this conflict. This industrial action has been supported by a number of other unions.

Port workers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Norway & neighboring states, are refusing to process the company's vehicles; waste is not removed from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; and newly built power points are not being linked to power networks in the country.

Exists an example near the capital's airport, where 20 charging units stand idle. But Tibor Blomhäll, the president of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, says Tesla owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists an alternative power point 10km from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to continue to purchase vehicles, we can maintain our cars, we can charge our cars."

With stakes significant for all parties, it's hard to see a resolution to the stand-off. IF Metall risks setting a precedent should it surrender the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

"The worry is that that would spread," states Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode