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Across Sweden, around seventy automotive technicians continue to confront one of the globe's richest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The industrial action at the US carmaker's ten Swedish service centers has now reached its second anniversary, with minimal indication for a resolution.

Janis Kuzma has been at the electric car company's protest line since October 2023.

"It's a difficult time," remarks the 39-year-old. With the nation's cold winter weather arrives, it is expected to become even tougher.

Janis devotes each Monday alongside a colleague, standing near an electric vehicle service center within an industrial park in Malmö. The labor organization, IF Metall, provides accommodation in the form of a mobile construction vehicle, plus hot beverages and light meals.

But it's business as usual nearby, where the service facility seems to be in full swing.

The strike concerns an issue that reaches to the heart of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the right of trade unions to negotiate wages & conditions representing their members. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned industrial relations across the nation for almost one hundred years.

Today some seventy percent of Scandinavia's employees are members of a trade union, and ninety percent are covered by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages in Sweden are rare.

This is an arrangement welcomed across the board. "We favor the ability to bargain freely with the unions and sign labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses business organization.

However the electric car company has upset the apple cart. Vocal CEO Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of anything which creates a kind of hierarchical situation," he informed listeners at an event in 2023. "I think labor groups try to generate conflict within businesses."

Tesla came to Sweden back in the mid-2010s, and the metalworkers' union has for years wanted to establish a collective agreement with the automaker.

"But they wouldn't reply," states the union president, the organization's president. "We formed the impression that they attempted to hide away or evade discussing this with our representatives."

She states the organization ultimately found no other option except to call industrial action, beginning in late October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to make a warning," says the union leader. "Employers usually signs the contract."

However this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, who is from Latvia, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that pay & work terms frequently dependent on the discretion of managers.

He remembers an evaluation meeting where he states he was refused an annual pay rise because that he "failing to meet Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was said to have been turned down for increased compensation because having an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers went out in the industrial action. The company had some one hundred thirty mechanics working at the time the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall states that today around seventy of its members are on strike.

The automaker has since replaced these with replacement staff, for which that has not occurred since the era of the 1930s.

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] publicly and systematically," states German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a think tank supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not against the law, which is important to understand. But it goes against all traditional practices. But Tesla shows no concern for conventions.

"They aim to be convention challengers. So if anyone tells them, listen, you are breaking a standard, they see this as a compliment."

The company's local division refused attempts for comment via correspondence citing "record vehicle shipments".

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

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, the executive, told a financial publication that it suited the organization better to avoid a collective agreement, and rather "to work closely with employees and give workers the best possible terms".

Mr Stark denied that the choice to avoid a collective agreement was determined at Tesla headquarters in the US. "We have a mandate to take independent such decisions," he stated.

IF Metall is not completely alone in its fight. The strike has been supported from several of labor organizations.

Port workers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & neighboring states, decline to handle Teslas; waste is no longer removed from the automaker's Swedish facilities; while newly built charging stations are not being connected to the grid across the nation.

There is an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where twenty chargers remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the president of an owner's club the Swedish Tesla association, says vehicle owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There's another charging station 10km from this location," he says. "And we can continue to buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can charge our electric cars."

With stakes high on both sides, it is difficult to envision an end to the stand-off. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

"The worry is how this could expand," says Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode