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In Sweden, approximately 70 car mechanics persist to challenge among the globe's wealthiest companies – Tesla. This industrial action at the American automaker's ten Scandinavian service centers has currently entered two years of duration, and there is little indication of a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has remained at the electric car company's picket line since October 2023.

"It has been a difficult period," states the 39-year-old. With the nation's cold seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to grow even tougher.

The mechanic devotes each Monday with a fellow worker, standing outside a Tesla garage on an industrial park located in southern Sweden. His union, IF Metall, supplies shelter in the form of a mobile builders' van, plus coffee and light meals.

However it remains operations continue normally nearby, at which the workshop seems to operate in full swing.

The strike concerns an issue that reaches to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the authority for worker organizations to negotiate wages & working terms representing their workforce. This concept of collective agreement has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly one hundred years.

Currently approximately 70% of Scandinavia's workers are members of a trade union, while 90% are covered by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

This is a system welcomed across the board. "We prefer the ability to bargain freely with worker representatives and establish collective agreements," says Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

However Tesla has upset the apple cart. Outspoken CEO Elon Musk has stated he "opposes" with the idea of labor organizations. "I just disapprove of any arrangement which creates a sort of lords and peasants situation," he informed listeners in New York in 2023. "I think labor groups try to create negativity in a company."

Tesla entered the Scandinavian market starting in the mid-2010s, and IF Metall has for years wanted to secure a labor contract with the company.

"Yet they did not reply," states the union president, the union's president. "We formed the belief that they attempted to hide away or evade discussing the matter with us."

She says the organization eventually saw no alternative except to call industrial action, beginning in late October, last year. "Typically it's enough to issue a warning," comments the union leader. "Employers typically agrees to the contract."

However this did not happen on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, originally of Latvian origin, began employment with the automaker in 2021. He asserts that pay & work terms frequently dependent on the discretion of managers.

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

However, not everyone went out on strike. Tesla employed approximately one hundred thirty technicians working when the industrial action was called. The union states that today around seventy of its members are on strike.

The automaker has since replaced the striking workers with replacement staff, for which there is not occurred since the era of the 1930s.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and systematically," states German Bender, an analyst at Arena Idé, a policy organization financed by Swedish trade unions.

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

"They want to become norm breakers. So if somebody informs them, listen, you are violating a standard, they perceive that as praise."

The automaker's local division declined attempts for interview in an email mentioning "record deliveries".

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

In March 2024, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a business paper that it benefited the organization better not to have a collective agreement, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and provide them the best possible conditions".

The executive rejected that the choice to avoid a collective agreement was determined by US leadership overseas. "We have authorization to make our own such choices," he said.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in this conflict. This industrial action has received backing from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Norway and Finland, decline to handle the company's vehicles; rubbish is no longer removed from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; and newly built power points remain connected to power networks in the country.

There is one such facility close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which 20 charging units remain unused. However Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, states vehicle owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's another charging station six miles from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to continue to buy our cars, we can service our vehicles, we can power our electric cars."

With stakes high on both sides, it is difficult to envision a resolution to the deadlock. IF Metall faces the danger of setting a precedent if it concedes the principle of collective agreement.

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