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In Sweden, approximately seventy automotive technicians persist to challenge among the world's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action at the US carmaker's ten Swedish service centers has currently reached two years of duration, and there is little sign of a settlement.

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

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

Janis spends each Monday alongside a fellow worker, standing outside a Tesla service center within an industrial park in Malmö. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies shelter via a portable construction vehicle, as well as hot beverages and sandwiches.

However it's business as usual across the road, where the service facility seems to be in full swing.

The strike concerns an issue that reaches to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to bargain for pay & conditions representing their members. This concept of collective agreement has underpinned industrial relations in Sweden for nearly one hundred years.

Today approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's workers are members to labor organizations, while ninety percent are covered by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages in Sweden are rare.

It's an arrangement welcomed by all parties. "We favor the right to negotiate freely with the unions and sign collective agreements," states Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses business organization.

But Tesla has disrupted established practices. Outspoken CEO the company leader has said he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just don't like anything that establishes a sort of hierarchical situation," he told listeners at an event last year. "In my view the unions attempt to create conflict in a company."

Tesla came to Sweden starting in 2014, and IF Metall has long sought to secure a collective agreement with the company.

"But they did not respond," states Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "And we got the belief that they tried to hide away or not discuss this with us."

She states the organization ultimately found no alternative than to call a strike, beginning in late October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to issue the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "Employers typically signs the agreement."

However not on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, who is from Latvia, began employment with the automaker in 2021. He claims that pay and conditions frequently dependent on the discretion of managers.

He recalls a performance review at which he states he was refused a salary increase because that he "failing to meet company targets". Meanwhile, a coworker was reported to be turned down for a pay rise because having an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, not everyone went out on strike. Tesla employed approximately one hundred thirty technicians employed when the industrial action was initiated. The union states currently approximately 70 of their represented workers are on strike.

The automaker has long since replaced the striking workers with replacement staff, a situation there is no precedent since the era of the Great Depression.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] openly and systematically," says German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a think tank financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not against the law, which is crucial to understand. But it goes against all established practices. But the company shows no concern about norms.

"They want to become convention challengers. So if somebody informs them, hey, you are breaking a standard, they see that as praise."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary declined attempts for interview via correspondence citing "record vehicle shipments".

In fact, the company has given only one media interview in the two years after the strike started.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a business paper that it suited the company better to avoid a collective agreement, and instead "to work closely with the team and provide workers the best possible terms".

The executive denied that the choice not to enter a collective agreement was one made at Tesla headquarters in the US. "We have a mandate to take independent such decisions," he said.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in its fight. The strike has been supported by a number of labor organizations.

Port workers in neighbouring Denmark, Nordic countries & Finland, are refusing to process the company's vehicles; waste is no longer collected from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; and newly built charging stations are not being connected to power networks in the country.

Exists one such facility close to the capital's airport, where 20 chargers stand idle. However a Tesla enthusiast, the president of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle 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 vehicles, we can power our electric cars."

With consequences significant for all parties, it's hard to envision an end to the deadlock. The union risks setting a precedent if it concedes the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

"The concern is that this could expand," says Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode