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In Sweden, approximately 70 car technicians persist to confront one of the globe's wealthiest companies – Tesla. This labor strike targeting the American automaker's 10 Swedish service centers has currently reached two years of duration, and there is minimal indication of a settlement.

One striking worker has remained at the electric car company's picket line starting from October 2023.

"It has been a tough period," remarks the 39-year-old. With Sweden's chilly seasonal conditions arrives, it is expected to grow more challenging.

Janis devotes every start of the week alongside a fellow worker, positioned near a Tesla garage within an industrial park located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies shelter in the form of a mobile builders' van, plus hot beverages & light meals.

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

This industrial action concerns a matter that goes to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the right of trade unions to bargain for pay & conditions on behalf of their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has supported labor dynamics across the nation for nearly a century.

Today some 70% of Scandinavia's workers belong to labor organizations, and ninety percent fall under by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

It's an arrangement supported by all parties. "We favor the ability to negotiate freely with the unions and sign collective agreements," states a business representative from the Association of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

However the electric car company has upset the apple cart. Outspoken chief executive the company leader has said he "disagrees" with the concept of unions. "I simply don't like any arrangement that establishes a kind of hierarchical situation," he told listeners at an event last year. "I think the unions try to generate conflict in a company."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market starting in 2014, and IF Metall has long sought to secure a labor contract with the automaker.

"But they did not reply," states the union president, the union's president. "And we got the belief that they attempted to hide away or evade discussing the matter with our representatives."

She states the organization eventually saw no other option except to announce industrial action, which started in late October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to issue the threat," says Ms Nilsson. "The company usually signs the agreement."

However not on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, who is of Latvian origin, started working for Tesla several years ago. He claims that pay and work terms frequently dependent on the whim of supervisors.

He remembers a performance review at which he states he was refused a salary increase on grounds he was "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a colleague was said to have been turned down for a pay rise because he had the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone went out in the industrial action. Tesla had some 130 technicians employed at the time the industrial action was called. IF Metall says that today approximately 70 of its members are participating in the action.

The automaker has long since replaced the striking workers with replacement staff, for which that has not occurred since the Great Depression.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly and methodically," states a labor researcher, an analyst at a research institute, a think tank supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not illegal, which is important to recognize. But it goes against all traditional practices. But Tesla doesn't care about norms.

"They want to become convention challengers. So if somebody informs them, hey, you are violating a norm, they see this as a compliment."

The automaker's local division refused requests for comment in an email citing "record deliveries".

Indeed, the automaker has granted only one media interview during the entire period after the strike started.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", the executive, told a financial publication that it suited the organization more not to have a collective agreement, and rather "to collaborate directly with the team and provide workers optimal terms".

Mr Stark denied that the choice not to enter a labor contract was determined at Tesla headquarters overseas. "Our division possesses a mandate to make independent such choices," he said.

The union is not completely alone in its fight. This industrial action has been supported from several of other unions.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Norway and neighboring states, decline to process the company's vehicles; rubbish is no longer removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; while recently constructed power points are not being linked to the grid across the nation.

There is an example close to the capital's airport, at which twenty chargers stand idle. However Tibor Blomhäll, the president of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, says Tesla owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

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

With stakes significant on both sides, it is difficult to envision an end to the stand-off. IF Metall risks setting a precedent should it surrender the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

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