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In Sweden, approximately 70 automotive mechanics continue to confront one of the world's richest corporations – Tesla. The industrial action targeting the American carmaker's ten Scandinavian repair facilities has currently reached two years of duration, with minimal indication for a resolution.

One striking worker has remained at the Tesla picket line starting from October 2023.

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

Janis devotes every start of the week with a colleague, standing outside a Tesla garage within a business district in Malmö. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies shelter in the form of a portable builders' van, plus coffee and sandwiches.

However it remains operations continue normally across the road, at which the service facility seems to be in full swing.

The strike concerns a matter that goes to the heart of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the authority for worker organizations to negotiate pay and conditions on behalf of their members. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned industrial relations across the nation for nearly one hundred years.

Today approximately 70% of Swedish employees are members of a trade union, and 90% fall under by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages in Sweden occur infrequently.

It's an arrangement supported across the board. "We favor the right to bargain directly with the unions and sign collective agreements," states a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses business organization.

However the electric car company has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "opposes" with the concept of unions. "I simply disapprove of anything which creates a sort of hierarchical situation," he informed listeners at an event in 2023. "In my view labor groups try to generate negativity within businesses."

The automaker came to Sweden starting in the mid-2010s, while the metalworkers' union has for years wanted to establish a collective agreement with the company.

"But they did not respond," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's leader. "And we got the impression that they attempted to avoid or not discuss this with our representatives."

She states the organization ultimately saw no other option except to announce industrial action, which started in late October, 2023. "Typically the threat suffices to issue a warning," comments Ms Nilsson. "Employers usually signs the agreement."

However not in this case.

Janis Kuzma, originally of Latvian origin, began employment for Tesla several years ago. He claims that wages and work terms were often subject to the discretion of supervisors.

He remembers an evaluation meeting where he says he was refused a salary increase because that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was said to have been rejected for a pay rise because he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers participated on strike. Tesla had some 130 mechanics employed when the strike was called. The union says currently approximately seventy of its members are participating in the action.

Tesla has since replaced these with new workers, for which that has not occurred since the Great Depression.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly & methodically," says a labor researcher, a researcher at a research institute, a think tank financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not illegal, which is crucial to understand. But it goes against all established practices. Yet the company doesn't care for conventions.

"They want to be norm breakers. So if somebody tells them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as a compliment."

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

In fact, the company has granted only one press discussion during the entire period after the industrial action started.

In March 2024, the local division's "national manager, the executive, informed a business paper that it benefited the company more not to have a union contract, and rather "to work closely with the team and give workers the best possible conditions".

Mr Stark denied that the decision not to enter a collective agreement was one made by US leadership in the US. "Our division possesses authorization to take our own such decisions," he said.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in this conflict. This industrial action has been supported by a number of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & neighboring states, are refusing to process the company's vehicles; rubbish is no longer removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; and recently constructed charging stations remain connected to the grid across the nation.

There is one such facility near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where twenty charging units stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, states vehicle owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There's another charging station six miles from here," he comments. "And we can continue to purchase vehicles, we can service our cars, we can power our cars."

With consequences significant on both sides, it's hard to see a resolution to the deadlock. The union risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

"The concern is that this could expand," states the researcher, "and eventually {erode