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In Sweden, approximately seventy automotive mechanics continue to confront among the globe's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The labor strike targeting the American carmaker's ten Swedish repair facilities has now reached two years of duration, with minimal sign of a settlement.

One striking worker has been on the Tesla protest line starting from October 2023.

"It's a difficult time," remarks the 39-year-old. With the nation's cold seasonal conditions arrives, it's likely to grow more challenging.

The mechanic spends every start of the week with a fellow worker, standing outside a Tesla service center on an industrial park in Malmö. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies accommodation via a mobile builders' van, as well as hot beverages and sandwiches.

However it remains business as usual nearby, at which the service facility appears to operate at full capacity.

The strike involves a matter that goes to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the authority of trade unions to bargain for wages & working terms representing their workforce. This concept of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly one hundred years.

Today approximately 70% of Scandinavia's employees belong to labor organizations, and ninety percent fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes in Sweden occur infrequently.

This is an arrangement supported across the board. "We prefer the right to bargain directly with worker representatives and sign labor contracts," states Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses business organization.

However the electric car company has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal CEO the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I just don't like any arrangement which creates a sort of hierarchical sort of thing," he told listeners at an event last year. "I think the unions try to generate conflict within businesses."

Tesla came to the Scandinavian market back in 2014, and IF Metall has for years wanted to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"Yet they wouldn't respond," says Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "And we got the belief that they tried to avoid or not discuss the matter with us."

She says the organization eventually saw no alternative than to call industrial action, beginning on 27 October, 2023. "Typically the threat suffices to issue a warning," comments the union leader. "The company typically signs the contract."

But this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, began employment for Tesla several years ago. He asserts that wages and conditions frequently subject to the discretion of supervisors.

He recalls a performance review where he says he was refused an annual pay rise on grounds he was "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was said to have been turned down for increased compensation due to he had the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, some workers participated in the industrial action. Tesla had some one hundred thirty technicians employed when the industrial action was called. IF Metall says that today approximately 70 of its members are on strike.

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

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] openly and methodically," says German Bender, an analyst at Arena Idé, a think tank supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not illegal, this being important to recognize. However it goes against all established practices. Yet the company doesn't care for conventions.

"They aim to become norm breakers. So if somebody tells them, hey, you are breaking a standard, they see this as a compliment."

The automaker's local division declined attempts for comment via correspondence mentioning "all-time high deliveries".

In fact, the automaker has granted only one media interview during the entire period after the strike began.

Earlier this year, the local division's "national manager, the executive, informed a business paper that it benefited the company better to avoid a union contract, and rather "to work closely with employees and provide workers the best possible conditions".

Mr Stark rejected that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined at Tesla headquarters overseas. "We have a mandate to take independent such decisions," he said.

The union is not completely alone in its fight. The strike has received backing from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Denmark, Norway & Finland, decline to process Teslas; rubbish is not collected from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; while recently constructed power points remain connected to power networks in the country.

Exists one such facility near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which 20 chargers stand idle. But Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, states vehicle owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists another charging station six miles from this location," he comments. "Plus we are able to continue to purchase vehicles, we can maintain our vehicles, we can charge our cars."

With consequences high on both sides, it's hard to see a resolution to the deadlock. The union faces the danger of establishing a pattern should it surrender the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

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