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In Sweden, approximately 70 car technicians persist to challenge among the world's wealthiest corporations – Tesla. The industrial action targeting the American carmaker's ten Swedish repair facilities has currently entered two years of duration, and there is little sign of a settlement.

One striking worker has remained on the Tesla protest line since the autumn of 2023.

"It has been a tough time," remarks the worker in his late thirties. And as Sweden's cold seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to become more challenging.

The mechanic spends every start of the week alongside a colleague, standing near a Tesla service center on an industrial park located in southern Sweden. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides shelter in the form of a mobile builders' van, plus coffee and sandwiches.

But it's operations continue normally across the road, at which the service facility appears to operate in full swing.

This industrial action involves a matter that goes to the heart of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the authority for worker organizations to negotiate pay & conditions representing their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned industrial relations in Sweden for nearly a century.

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

This is a system supported by all parties. "We prefer the right to negotiate freely with the unions and sign labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

But the electric car company has upset established practices. Vocal chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of unions. "I simply don't like any arrangement which creates a kind of hierarchical situation," he told an audience at an event in 2023. "I think labor groups attempt to create conflict within businesses."

Tesla came to Sweden starting in 2014, while IF Metall has for years wanted to secure a labor contract with the company.

"Yet they wouldn't respond," says Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "We formed the belief that they tried to hide away or evade discussing the matter with our representatives."

She states the organization eventually found no alternative except to announce a strike, beginning on 27 October, 2023. "Usually it's enough to make the threat," says the union leader. "Employers usually agrees to the contract."

But this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally of Latvian origin, began employment with the automaker in 2021. He claims that wages & work terms were often dependent on the whim of managers.

He remembers a performance review where he states he was denied 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 an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, some workers participated on strike. Tesla employed some one hundred thirty mechanics employed at the time the strike was initiated. The union states currently approximately seventy of its members are on strike.

Tesla has since replaced the striking workers with replacement staff, for which that has no precedent since the 1930s.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly & systematically," says German Bender, a researcher at Arena Idé, a think tank financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not illegal, which is crucial to understand. But it goes against all traditional norms. Yet Tesla doesn't care for conventions.

"They want to be convention challengers. Thus when somebody informs them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as praise."

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

Indeed, the automaker has given just a single press discussion in the two years after the strike started.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a financial publication that it benefited the organization better to avoid a union contract, and instead "to work closely with the team and give workers optimal terms".

Mr Stark denied that the choice to avoid a labor contract was determined by US leadership overseas. "Our division possesses a mandate to take independent such decisions," he said.

The union is not entirely isolated in its fight. This industrial action has received backing by a number of labor organizations.

Port workers in nearby Denmark, Nordic countries and Finland, decline to process the company's vehicles; rubbish is no longer removed from Tesla's Swedish facilities; and newly built power points remain connected to power networks across the nation.

Exists one such facility near the capital's airport, at which twenty chargers stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of an owner's club the Swedish Tesla association, says Tesla owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There exists an alternative power point 10km from this location," he says. "And we can continue to buy our cars, we can maintain our cars, we can power our cars."

With consequences high for all parties, it is difficult to envision an end to the deadlock. IF Metall faces the danger of establishing a pattern should it surrender the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

"The worry is that that would spread," states Mr Bender, "and ultimately {erode