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Across Sweden, approximately 70 car mechanics continue to challenge one of the globe's wealthiest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The industrial action at the American automaker's ten Scandinavian repair facilities has currently entered two years of duration, and there is minimal indication of a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has been on the electric car company's picket line since October 2023.

"It has been a tough period," states the 39-year-old. And as the nation's chilly winter weather sets in, it's likely to grow more challenging.

Janis spends each Monday alongside a colleague, standing outside an electric vehicle garage within a business district in Malmö. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies shelter via a portable builders' van, as well as coffee & light meals.

But it's operations continue normally across the road, at which the service facility appears to be at full capacity.

This industrial action concerns an issue that goes to the core of Swedish industrial culture – the authority for worker organizations to negotiate pay and conditions representing their members. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned labor dynamics across the nation for almost one hundred years.

Today some 70% of Swedish workers belong of a trade union, and 90% fall under by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages in Sweden are rare.

This is an arrangement supported across the board. "We favor the right to bargain directly with worker representatives and sign labor contracts," states a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses employer group.

However Tesla has disrupted established practices. Vocal chief executive the company leader has said he "opposes" with the idea of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of any arrangement which creates a sort of lords and peasants sort of thing," he told an audience in New York in 2023. "In my view labor groups try to generate negativity in a company."

The automaker came to Sweden back in 2014, and the metalworkers' union has long sought to secure a labor contract with the company.

"Yet they did not reply," states 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 union ultimately saw no alternative except to call industrial action, which started in late October, last year. "Typically the threat suffices to issue the threat," comments the union leader. "The company typically agrees to the contract."

However this did not happen on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, originally from Latvia, began employment for Tesla several years ago. He claims that pay and work terms were often subject to the whim of supervisors.

He recalls a performance review where he says he was refused a salary increase because he was "not reaching Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to have been turned down for increased compensation due to he had the "wrong attitude".

However, some workers went out on strike. The company had some one hundred thirty mechanics working when the strike was initiated. IF Metall states currently approximately seventy of their represented workers are participating in the action.

Tesla has long since substituted these with new workers, for which that has no precedent since the Great Depression.

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] openly and systematically," says German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not against the law, which is crucial to recognize. But it violates all traditional norms. Yet the company shows no concern about norms.

"They want to become norm breakers. Thus when somebody tells them, listen, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as praise."

The company's Swedish subsidiary declined attempts for comment via correspondence citing "all-time high vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the company has granted only one media interview during the entire period since the strike started.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a financial publication that it suited the organization more not to have a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with the team and provide them the best possible conditions".

Mr Stark rejected that the decision not to enter a collective agreement was determined by US leadership overseas. "We have a mandate to take independent such choices," he stated.

IF Metall is not entirely isolated in its fight. The strike has received backing by a number of other unions.

Port workers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & neighboring states, are refusing to handle the company's vehicles; rubbish is not removed from Tesla's Swedish facilities; while recently constructed charging stations remain connected to the grid in the country.

There is an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which twenty chargers stand idle. However a Tesla enthusiast, the president of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, states Tesla owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists another charging station 10km from this location," he comments. "Plus we are able to still buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can charge our cars."

With stakes significant on both sides, it is difficult to envision an end to the stand-off. The union faces the danger of establishing a pattern if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

"The worry is how this could expand," says Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode