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In Sweden, approximately seventy automotive mechanics continue to challenge among the globe's richest corporations – Tesla. The labor strike at the American carmaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has now entered two years of duration, with minimal indication for a resolution.

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

"It has been a difficult period," remarks the worker in his late thirties. With the nation's chilly seasonal conditions arrives, it is expected to become even tougher.

The mechanic spends every start of the week with a fellow worker, positioned near a Tesla garage on an industrial park in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, supplies shelter via a portable builders' van, as well as coffee & light meals.

However it's operations continue normally across the road, at which the workshop appears to be at full capacity.

The strike concerns a matter that goes to the core of Swedish industrial culture – the right for worker organizations to negotiate wages & working terms on behalf of their workforce. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics across the nation for almost one hundred years.

Today approximately 70% of Swedish employees belong of a trade union, and 90% are covered by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation are rare.

This is an arrangement supported by all parties. "We favor the right to negotiate directly with the unions and sign labor contracts," states a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses business organization.

However the electric car company has disrupted established practices. Outspoken CEO the company leader has stated he "opposes" with the idea of labor organizations. "I just disapprove of any arrangement that establishes a kind of hierarchical situation," he told an audience at an event last year. "In my view labor groups try to create conflict in a company."

The automaker came to the Scandinavian market back in the mid-2010s, and IF Metall has for years wanted to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"But they wouldn't reply," states Marie Nilsson, the organization's leader. "And we got the impression that they tried to avoid or not discuss the matter with us."

She states the organization eventually saw no other option than to announce industrial action, which started in late October, 2023. "Typically it's enough to issue the threat," comments the union leader. "Employers usually signs the contract."

But this did not happen in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is from Latvia, started working for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that pay & work terms were often dependent on the whim of managers.

He remembers a performance review at which he states he was refused a salary increase on grounds that he "not reaching company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to be rejected for increased compensation because having the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, not everyone went out in the industrial action. Tesla had some 130 mechanics working at the time the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall says that today around seventy of their represented workers are participating in the action.

The automaker has long since substituted these with replacement staff, a situation there is not occurred since the era of the Great Depression.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and systematically," says German Bender, an analyst at Arena Idé, a think tank financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not against the law, this being crucial to recognize. But it goes against all established practices. But the company doesn't care about norms.

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

The company's Swedish subsidiary declined attempts for comment via correspondence citing "all-time high deliveries".

In fact, the automaker has given just a single press discussion in the two years after the industrial action started.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a financial publication that it benefited the company better to avoid a collective agreement, and rather "to work closely with employees and give workers the best possible terms".

The executive denied that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined at Tesla headquarters overseas. "We have a mandate to make our own such decisions," he said.

The union is not entirely isolated in its fight. The strike has been supported by a number of other unions.

Port workers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Norway & Finland, decline to process the company's vehicles; rubbish is not collected from the automaker's Swedish facilities; and recently constructed charging stations remain connected to the grid in the country.

There is an example near the capital's airport, where twenty charging units remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, states Tesla owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There's an alternative power point six miles from this location," he comments. "And we can continue to buy our cars, we can service our vehicles, we can charge our cars."

With stakes high on both sides, it is difficult to envision an end to the deadlock. The union faces the danger of setting a precedent should it surrender the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

"The concern is that this could expand," states the researcher, "and eventually {erode