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In Sweden, approximately 70 automotive mechanics continue to confront among the world's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The labor strike targeting the US carmaker's 10 Scandinavian service centers has currently entered two years of duration, with minimal sign of a resolution.

One striking worker has been at the Tesla picket line since October 2023.

"It has been a difficult period," remarks the 39-year-old. And as the nation's chilly winter weather sets in, it's likely to become even tougher.

The mechanic spends every start of the week alongside a colleague, positioned outside an electric vehicle garage within an industrial park located in southern Sweden. His union, IF Metall, provides shelter via a portable builders' van, plus hot beverages & sandwiches.

But it remains business as usual across the road, at which the service facility appears to be at full capacity.

The strike concerns an issue that goes to the core of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the authority for worker organizations to negotiate wages & working terms representing their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has supported labor dynamics across the nation for nearly a century.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Swedish employees belong of a trade union, and 90% fall under by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages in Sweden occur infrequently.

This is a system welcomed by all parties. "We prefer the ability to negotiate freely with the unions and sign labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

However Tesla has disrupted established practices. Vocal CEO Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of unions. "I just disapprove of anything which creates a sort of lords and peasants situation," he told an audience at an event in 2023. "I think labor groups try to generate conflict in a company."

Tesla entered Sweden back in the mid-2010s, while IF Metall has long sought to secure a labor contract with the automaker.

"But they wouldn't respond," states Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "And we got the belief that they tried to avoid or evade discussing the matter with us."

She states the organization ultimately saw no other option than to announce a strike, which started on 27 October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to make the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "The company typically agrees to the agreement."

But not on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, started working with the automaker in 2021. He claims that wages and conditions were often dependent on the whim of managers.

He remembers an evaluation meeting at which he states he was denied an annual pay rise on grounds that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a coworker was said to have been rejected for increased compensation because he had the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, not everyone participated on strike. The company employed some 130 mechanics employed when the strike was called. The union says currently around seventy of its members are participating in the action.

Tesla has long since substituted the striking workers with new workers, a situation that has no precedent since the 1930s.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and methodically," says a labor researcher, an analyst at Arena Idé, a policy organization financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not illegal, this being important to recognize. But it goes against all traditional norms. But the company shows no concern for conventions.

"They want to become norm breakers. So if anyone tells them, listen, you are breaking a standard, they see that as a compliment."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary declined requests for comment in an email mentioning "record deliveries".

In fact, the automaker has given just a single media interview during the entire period since the industrial action started.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", the executive, told a business paper that it suited the organization more not to have a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with the team and give them optimal terms".

The executive denied that the choice not to enter a collective agreement was one made by US leadership in the US. "We have a mandate to make our own such choices," he stated.

The union is not entirely isolated in this conflict. This industrial action has been supported by a number of other unions.

Port workers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Norway & neighboring states, decline to process Teslas; rubbish is not removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; while newly built power points remain connected to the grid across the nation.

Exists an example close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which twenty charging units remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the president of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, states Tesla owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There's an alternative power point six miles from this location," he comments. "Plus we are able to still buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can charge our electric cars."

With consequences high for all parties, it's hard to envision a resolution to the stand-off. IF Metall risks setting a precedent if it concedes the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

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