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In Sweden, around 70 automotive mechanics persist to challenge one of the globe's wealthiest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action at the US carmaker's ten Swedish service centers has currently reached its second anniversary, with minimal sign for a resolution.

One striking worker has remained on the electric car company's protest line since October 2023.

"It has been a tough time," remarks the 39-year-old. With the nation's chilly seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to grow more challenging.

The mechanic spends each Monday alongside a colleague, positioned near a Tesla garage on an industrial park in Malmö. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides accommodation via a portable builders' van, as well as hot beverages & light meals.

However it's operations continue normally nearby, where the workshop seems to operate at full capacity.

This industrial action involves a matter that goes to the core of Swedish industrial culture – the authority for worker organizations to negotiate wages and working terms on behalf of their members. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has supported industrial relations in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's employees are members to labor organizations, and ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes across the nation are rare.

This is an arrangement welcomed across the board. "We favor the right to bargain directly with worker representatives and establish collective agreements," states a business representative from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

However Tesla has upset established practices. Vocal chief executive the company leader has said he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just don't like anything which creates a kind of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed listeners at an event in 2023. "I think the unions try to generate negativity within businesses."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market starting in 2014, while IF Metall has for years wanted to establish a collective agreement with the company.

"But they did not reply," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "And we got the impression that they attempted to hide away or not discuss the matter with our representatives."

She states the organization eventually saw no other option than to call industrial action, beginning in late October, last year. "Usually it's enough to make a warning," says the union leader. "The company usually signs the agreement."

But this did not happen in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is of Latvian origin, began employment with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that pay and work terms frequently subject to the discretion of managers.

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he says he was denied a salary increase because he was "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a colleague was said to be rejected for a pay rise due to he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers participated in the industrial action. The company had approximately one hundred thirty technicians working when the industrial action was called. IF Metall says that today approximately seventy of its members are participating in the action.

Tesla has since substituted the striking workers with new workers, a situation there is not occurred since the era of the Great Depression.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] openly & methodically," says German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a think tank financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not against the law, which is crucial to understand. However it violates all established practices. But the company doesn't care for conventions.

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

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary refused requests for comment via correspondence citing "record vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the automaker has given just a single press discussion in the two years since the industrial action started.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", the executive, told a financial publication that it benefited the organization better not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to collaborate directly with the team and provide workers the best possible terms".

The executive rejected that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined by US leadership overseas. "Our division possesses authorization to make independent such choices," he said.

The union is not completely isolated in this conflict. The strike has been supported from several of labor organizations.

Port workers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries and Finland, are refusing to process Teslas; rubbish is not removed from the automaker's Swedish facilities; and newly built charging stations remain connected to the grid across the nation.

There is one such facility near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where twenty charging units remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, 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 still purchase vehicles, we can service our cars, we can charge our cars."

With stakes high on both sides, it is difficult to envision a resolution to the deadlock. The union risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

"The concern is that this could expand," states the researcher, "and eventually {erode