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In Sweden, approximately 70 automotive mechanics persist to confront one of the globe's wealthiest companies – Tesla. This labor strike at the US carmaker's ten Scandinavian service centers has now entered two years of duration, with little sign of a resolution.

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

"It's a tough time," remarks the worker in his late thirties. With Sweden's cold seasonal conditions sets in, it is expected to grow even tougher.

The mechanic devotes every start of the week alongside a colleague, standing outside an electric vehicle garage within a business district in Malmö. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides shelter via a portable builders' van, plus coffee and sandwiches.

But it remains business as usual nearby, at which the workshop seems to be in full swing.

The strike involves a matter that reaches to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the authority of trade unions to bargain for pay & working terms representing their workforce. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Today some seventy percent of Scandinavia's workers belong of a trade union, while ninety percent are covered by a collective agreement. Strikes in Sweden occur infrequently.

It's a system welcomed by all parties. "We favor the right to bargain freely with worker representatives and establish labor contracts," states Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

However the electric car company has disrupted established practices. Vocal chief executive the company leader has stated he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just don't like any arrangement that establishes a kind of hierarchical situation," he informed an audience in New York last year. "I think labor groups try to create conflict within businesses."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market back in the mid-2010s, while the metalworkers' union has long sought to establish a labor contract with the company.

"But they did not respond," says Marie Nilsson, the union's president. "We formed the impression that they tried to avoid or not discuss the matter with us."

She states the union eventually saw no alternative except to announce a strike, beginning in late October, last year. "Usually it's enough to make the threat," comments the union leader. "The company usually agrees to the agreement."

However this did not happen in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is from Latvia, started working for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that wages and conditions frequently subject to the whim of managers.

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

However, some workers participated in the industrial action. Tesla employed approximately one hundred thirty technicians employed at the time the strike was called. The union says currently approximately 70 of its members are on strike.

The automaker has long since replaced these with replacement staff, a situation that has no precedent since the 1930s.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly & methodically," says German Bender, an analyst at Arena Idé, a policy organization financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not against the law, this being crucial to recognize. However it violates all established norms. But Tesla shows no concern about norms.

"They want to become norm breakers. Thus when anyone tells them, listen, you are violating a norm, they see that as a compliment."

The company's local division declined requests for interview in an email citing "record vehicle shipments".

In fact, the automaker has granted only one press discussion during the entire period since the strike began.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, the executive, informed a financial publication that it benefited the organization more to avoid a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with the team and provide workers the best possible terms".

Mr Stark rejected that the decision 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 completely isolated in its fight. This industrial action has received backing from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries and Finland, decline to handle the company's vehicles; waste is not collected from the automaker's Swedish facilities; and newly built power points remain linked to power networks across the nation.

There is an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where twenty chargers remain unused. However a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says Tesla owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's another charging station six miles from here," he says. "And we can still buy our cars, we can maintain our cars, we can power our electric cars."

With stakes high for all parties, it is difficult to see an end to the stand-off. The union faces the danger of setting a precedent if it concedes the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

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