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In Sweden, around 70 automotive technicians continue to challenge among the world's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The labor strike targeting the US carmaker's 10 Scandinavian service centers has now entered two years of duration, and there is little sign for a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has been on the electric car company's picket line starting from the autumn of 2023.

"It has been a difficult period," remarks the 39-year-old. And as Sweden's chilly winter weather arrives, it is expected to grow more challenging.

The mechanic spends every start of the week alongside a fellow worker, positioned near an electric vehicle garage on a business district in Malmö. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies accommodation in the form of a portable builders' van, as well as hot beverages and sandwiches.

However it's business as usual nearby, where the service facility appears to be at full capacity.

This industrial action involves an issue that goes to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the authority for worker organizations to bargain for pay and conditions representing their workforce. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Today some 70% of Scandinavia's employees are members of a trade union, and 90% fall under by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages in Sweden are rare.

It's an arrangement supported across the board. "We favor the ability to bargain directly with the unions and establish labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses business organization.

However Tesla has upset the apple cart. Vocal CEO the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I just don't like anything that establishes a kind of lords and peasants sort of thing," he told listeners at an event last year. "I think labor groups attempt to create conflict in a company."

Tesla came to the Scandinavian market back in the mid-2010s, while IF Metall has long wanted to establish a collective agreement with the company.

"Yet they wouldn't respond," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "And we got the impression that they attempted to hide away or evade discussing the matter with us."

She says the union eventually found no alternative except to announce a strike, beginning on 27 October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to issue a warning," comments Ms Nilsson. "The company typically signs the agreement."

But not in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally of Latvian origin, started working for Tesla several years ago. He asserts that pay and conditions frequently subject to the discretion of supervisors.

He recalls a performance review where he states he was denied an annual pay rise on grounds he was "not reaching Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a coworker was reported to be rejected for a pay rise because he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, not everyone participated in the industrial action. The company had approximately one hundred thirty mechanics employed when the strike was called. IF Metall says currently around 70 of its members are participating in the action.

Tesla has long since substituted the striking workers with replacement staff, a situation there is no precedent since the 1930s.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly & methodically," states a labor researcher, a researcher at Arena Idé, a policy organization supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not against the law, this being crucial to understand. However it goes against all traditional norms. Yet the company shows no concern about norms.

"They aim to become convention challengers. Thus when anyone informs them, hey, you are breaking a standard, they perceive that as praise."

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

Indeed, the company has given only one press discussion in the two years since the industrial action began.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, Jens Stark, told a business paper that it suited the company more to avoid a union contract, and rather "to collaborate directly with the team and give workers optimal terms".

Mr Stark denied that the decision not to enter a labor contract was one made at Tesla headquarters overseas. "We have a mandate to make independent such decisions," he said.

IF Metall is not entirely alone in its fight. This industrial action has received backing from several of other unions.

Port workers in neighbouring Denmark, Norway & neighboring states, are refusing to process Teslas; rubbish is no longer collected from Tesla's Swedish facilities; while recently constructed charging stations remain linked to the grid in the country.

Exists one such facility close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which twenty charging units remain unused. However Tibor Blomhäll, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, states Tesla owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There exists an alternative power point six miles from here," he says. "And we can continue to purchase vehicles, we can service our vehicles, we can charge our electric cars."

With stakes high on both sides, it's hard to see a resolution to the stand-off. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern if it concedes the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

"The worry is how that would spread," states the researcher, "and eventually {erode