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In Sweden, around seventy automotive mechanics persist to confront one of the globe's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action targeting the American carmaker's ten Swedish repair facilities has currently reached two years of duration, with minimal indication of a settlement.

One striking worker has been on the electric car company's protest line starting from the autumn of 2023.

"It has been a tough time," remarks the worker in his late thirties. With the nation's cold winter weather arrives, it is expected to grow more challenging.

The mechanic devotes each Monday alongside a colleague, positioned outside a Tesla garage on an industrial park in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, provides shelter via a portable builders' van, plus coffee & light meals.

But it's business as usual nearby, at which the service facility seems to be in full swing.

The strike concerns a matter that reaches to the heart of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the authority for worker organizations to negotiate wages & conditions representing their members. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned labor dynamics across the nation for almost a century.

Currently approximately 70% of Scandinavia's workers are members to labor organizations, while ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes across the nation are rare.

This is a system welcomed across the board. "We favor the ability to bargain 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. Outspoken CEO the company leader has said he "opposes" with the idea of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of any arrangement which creates a sort of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed an audience at an event in 2023. "I think labor groups try to create negativity within businesses."

Tesla came to Sweden starting in the mid-2010s, and IF Metall has for years wanted to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"But they did not reply," states Marie Nilsson, the organization's leader. "We formed the impression that they attempted to avoid or not discuss this with us."

She states the organization eventually saw no other option except to call industrial action, which started on 27 October, 2023. "Typically the threat suffices to issue the threat," says Ms Nilsson. "The company usually agrees to the agreement."

But not in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is of Latvian origin, started working with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that pay and work terms were often subject to the whim of managers.

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he says he was refused a salary increase on grounds he was "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was said to have been rejected for a pay rise due to he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, not everyone participated on strike. Tesla employed some one hundred thirty technicians working when the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall states currently approximately seventy of its members are participating in the action.

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

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly & systematically," states German Bender, a researcher at Arena Idé, a think tank supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not against the law, this being important to recognize. But it violates all traditional practices. Yet Tesla doesn't care about norms.

"They want to become norm breakers. Thus when anyone informs them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive that as a compliment."

The company's local division refused attempts for comment in an email mentioning "record vehicle shipments".

In fact, the company has granted just a single media interview during the entire period since the strike started.

In March 2024, the local division's "national manager, the executive, informed a financial publication that it suited the company better to avoid a union contract, and rather "to work closely with employees and give them the best possible terms".

Mr Stark denied that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined by US leadership overseas. "Our division possesses authorization to take our own such choices," he said.

IF Metall is not entirely isolated in this conflict. The strike has received backing from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Norway and Finland, decline to process the company's vehicles; waste is not collected from the automaker's Swedish facilities; while newly built power points are not being connected to the grid in the country.

Exists one such facility close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which twenty chargers remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists an alternative power point 10km from here," he says. "And we can still purchase vehicles, we can service our vehicles, we can charge our cars."

With stakes significant on both sides, it's hard to envision a resolution to the stand-off. IF Metall faces the danger of setting a precedent if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

"The concern is that this could expand," states Mr Bender, "and ultimately {erode