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In Sweden, approximately 70 car mechanics persist to challenge among the globe's wealthiest corporations – Tesla. This industrial action at the American carmaker's 10 Swedish service centers has currently entered two years of duration, and there is little indication of a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has been on the Tesla picket line starting from October 2023.

"It's a difficult time," states the 39-year-old. And as the nation's chilly seasonal conditions arrives, it is expected to grow even tougher.

The mechanic devotes each Monday alongside a colleague, standing outside an electric vehicle service center within a business district in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, provides accommodation in the form of a portable construction vehicle, as well as coffee and light meals.

But it remains operations continue normally across the road, where the workshop seems to be at full capacity.

This industrial action involves an issue that goes to the heart of Swedish industrial culture – the authority for worker organizations to bargain for pay & working terms representing their members. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned industrial relations in Sweden for nearly one hundred years.

Today approximately 70% of Swedish employees are members to labor organizations, and 90% fall under by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages across the nation are rare.

It's a system supported by all parties. "We prefer the ability to negotiate directly with worker representatives and sign labor contracts," states a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

However Tesla has upset the apple cart. Vocal CEO the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I simply disapprove of anything which creates a sort of hierarchical sort of thing," he told an audience in New York in 2023. "I think labor groups attempt to generate negativity within businesses."

Tesla came to Sweden starting in the mid-2010s, while IF Metall has long wanted to secure a labor contract with the automaker.

"Yet they did not reply," says the union president, the union's leader. "And we got the impression that they tried to avoid or not discuss the matter with our representatives."

She states the organization eventually saw no alternative except to call a strike, beginning in late October, last year. "Typically it's enough to make the threat," says Ms Nilsson. "The company typically signs the agreement."

But this did not happen on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, who is from Latvia, started working with the automaker in 2021. He asserts that wages & conditions frequently dependent on the discretion of supervisors.

He remembers a performance review where he states he was refused an annual pay rise because he was "not reaching company targets". At the same time, a coworker was said to have been turned down for increased compensation due to having an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, some workers went out in the industrial action. Tesla had approximately one hundred thirty technicians employed at the time the industrial action was called. The union says currently approximately seventy of its members are on strike.

Tesla has long since replaced these with replacement staff, for which there is not occurred since the era of the 1930s.

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] publicly & systematically," says a labor researcher, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not illegal, which is crucial to understand. However it goes against all established practices. Yet Tesla doesn't care about norms.

"They want to become norm breakers. So if anyone tells them, hey, you are breaking a norm, they perceive that as a compliment."

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

In fact, the automaker has granted just a single press discussion during the entire period after the industrial action started.

In March 2024, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it suited the company better not to have a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with the team and provide workers optimal conditions".

The executive rejected that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was one made by US leadership overseas. "We have authorization to make independent such choices," he stated.

IF Metall is not entirely isolated in this conflict. This industrial action has received backing from several of other unions.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Denmark, Norway & neighboring states, decline to handle the company's vehicles; rubbish is no longer removed from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; and newly built power points remain linked to the grid in the country.

Exists an example close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where twenty charging units stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, states vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There's an alternative power point six miles from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to still purchase vehicles, we can service our vehicles, we can power our cars."

With stakes significant on both sides, it's hard to see an end to the deadlock. The union risks setting a precedent if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

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