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In Sweden, around 70 car technicians continue to challenge one of the globe's wealthiest corporations – Tesla. The labor strike at the American carmaker's 10 Swedish service centers has now entered its second anniversary, with little sign for a settlement.

One striking worker has remained at the Tesla protest line since October 2023.

"It's a tough time," remarks the worker in his late thirties. With the nation's cold winter weather sets in, it is expected to become even tougher.

Janis devotes every start of the week with a colleague, standing near a Tesla service center within a business district located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies accommodation in the form of a mobile builders' van, plus hot beverages & sandwiches.

But it's business as usual nearby, where the workshop seems to operate at full capacity.

The strike concerns an issue that reaches to the core of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the right for worker organizations to negotiate wages and working terms representing their members. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has supported industrial relations across the nation for almost a century.

Currently some 70% of Swedish workers are members to labor organizations, and 90% are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages across the nation occur infrequently.

This is a system supported by all parties. "We prefer the right to bargain directly with the unions and sign collective agreements," says a business representative from the Association of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

However Tesla has disrupted established practices. Outspoken CEO the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I just don't like anything that establishes a sort of lords and peasants sort of thing," he told an audience in New York in 2023. "In my view labor groups attempt to generate negativity within businesses."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market starting in the mid-2010s, while IF Metall has for years wanted to establish a collective agreement with the automaker.

"Yet they did not reply," says the union president, the union's president. "We formed the impression that they attempted to avoid or evade discussing this with us."

She states the organization ultimately saw no alternative except to call a strike, which started in late October, last year. "Typically the threat suffices to make a warning," says Ms Nilsson. "Employers usually agrees to the agreement."

But this did not happen on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, originally of Latvian origin, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He claims that wages and conditions frequently dependent on the discretion of supervisors.

He remembers a performance review where he states he was denied a salary increase on grounds that he "failing to meet Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was reported to have been rejected for increased compensation due to he had the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone participated in the industrial action. Tesla had approximately 130 technicians employed when the strike was called. IF Metall states currently approximately seventy of its members are participating in the action.

The automaker has since replaced these with replacement staff, for which there is not occurred since the Great Depression.

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] publicly and methodically," states German Bender, an analyst at a research institute, a policy organization financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not illegal, this being crucial to recognize. But it violates all traditional norms. Yet Tesla shows no concern about norms.

"They want to be norm breakers. So if anyone tells them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as a compliment."

The company's Swedish subsidiary declined attempts for comment in an email mentioning "all-time high vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the company has given just a single media interview during the entire period after the strike started.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, the executive, told a financial publication that it suited the company better not to have a union contract, and instead "to work closely with employees and give them the best possible conditions".

Mr Stark denied that the choice to avoid a labor contract was one made by US leadership in the US. "We have a mandate to make our own such decisions," he stated.

The union is not completely isolated in this conflict. This industrial action has received backing by a number of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & Finland, are refusing to process Teslas; rubbish is no longer collected from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; and newly built power points remain connected to power networks across the nation.

There is one such facility close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which twenty charging units stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, states vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There exists an alternative power point 10km from this location," he comments. "Plus we are able to still purchase vehicles, we can service our vehicles, we can power our cars."

With consequences high on both sides, it's hard to envision a resolution to the stand-off. IF Metall faces the danger of establishing a pattern should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

"The worry is that this could expand," says Mr Bender, "and ultimately {erode