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In Sweden, around seventy automotive technicians continue to confront one of the globe's wealthiest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action targeting the American automaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has currently entered two years of duration, with minimal indication for a resolution.

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

"It has been a tough time," states the worker in his late thirties. And as the nation's chilly seasonal conditions sets in, it is expected to become even tougher.

Janis devotes every start of the week with a fellow worker, positioned outside a Tesla service center within an industrial park located in southern Sweden. His union, IF Metall, supplies shelter via a portable builders' van, as well as coffee & sandwiches.

But it remains operations continue normally across the road, where the service facility appears to operate in full swing.

This industrial action involves an issue that reaches to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to negotiate pay & conditions on behalf of their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has supported industrial relations in Sweden for nearly one hundred years.

Currently approximately 70% of Swedish workers belong of a trade union, while ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages across the nation are rare.

It's an arrangement welcomed by all parties. "We prefer the right to bargain freely with the unions and establish collective agreements," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses business organization.

However the electric car company has upset the apple cart. Outspoken CEO the company leader has said he "disagrees" 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 in 2023. "In my view the unions attempt to generate negativity in a company."

The automaker came to Sweden starting in the mid-2010s, and the metalworkers' union has long sought to secure a labor contract with the automaker.

"But they did not respond," states the union president, the organization's president. "We formed the impression that they attempted to avoid or not discuss the matter with our representatives."

She states the organization ultimately found no alternative except to announce industrial action, which started on 27 October, 2023. "Typically the threat suffices to issue the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "Employers usually agrees to the contract."

But this did not happen on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, originally of Latvian origin, started working for Tesla several years ago. He claims that pay & work terms were often subject to the discretion of managers.

He remembers an evaluation meeting at which he says he was denied an annual pay rise because he was "failing to meet Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to be turned down for increased compensation because having an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers went out on strike. The company employed some one hundred thirty technicians working at the time the strike was initiated. IF Metall states currently approximately 70 of its members are participating in the action.

Tesla has since replaced the striking workers with new workers, a situation that has not occurred since the era of the Great Depression.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly and systematically," says 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. However it goes against all traditional norms. Yet the company doesn't care for conventions.

"They aim to become convention challengers. Thus when anyone tells them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as a compliment."

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

Indeed, the company has given only one media interview in the two years since the strike began.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a business paper that it benefited the organization better to avoid a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and give workers optimal terms".

The executive denied that the choice to avoid a collective agreement was one made by US leadership in the US. "Our division possesses a mandate to take independent such choices," he stated.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in this conflict. This industrial action has been supported by a number of other unions.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Norway & Finland, are refusing to handle Teslas; waste is no longer collected from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; while newly built charging stations remain connected to power networks across the nation.

Exists one such facility near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which 20 charging units remain unused. However Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, states Tesla owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's another charging station 10km from this location," he comments. "And we can continue to purchase vehicles, we can service our cars, we can power our cars."

With consequences significant for all parties, it is difficult to see a resolution to the stand-off. IF Metall risks setting a precedent if it concedes the principle of collective agreement.

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