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In Sweden, around seventy automotive technicians persist to challenge one of the world's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The labor strike at the US automaker's 10 Scandinavian service centers has currently entered two years of duration, with minimal indication for a resolution.

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

"It has been a tough period," remarks the 39-year-old. And as the nation's cold seasonal conditions sets in, it is expected to grow even tougher.

The mechanic spends each Monday alongside a colleague, positioned outside an electric vehicle garage within an industrial park in Malmö. The labor organization, IF Metall, provides shelter via a mobile construction vehicle, as well as hot beverages and light meals.

However it's business as usual across the road, at which the service facility appears to be at full capacity.

This industrial action concerns a matter that goes to the core of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the authority for worker organizations to bargain for pay and working terms representing their members. This principle of collective agreement has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly a century.

Today some 70% of Swedish workers belong to labor organizations, and ninety percent fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

It's a system supported across the board. "We prefer the right to negotiate freely with the unions and sign labor contracts," states a business representative from the Association of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

However the electric car company has upset the apple cart. Vocal CEO Elon Musk has said he "opposes" with the idea of unions. "I just disapprove of anything that establishes a sort of hierarchical sort of thing," he told an audience in New York last year. "I think labor groups try to generate negativity within businesses."

Tesla came to the Scandinavian market back in the mid-2010s, and the metalworkers' union has for years wanted to secure a labor contract with the automaker.

"But they wouldn't reply," says the union president, the organization's leader. "We formed the belief that they tried to avoid or not discuss this with us."

She states the organization ultimately found no other option except to call a strike, which started on 27 October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to make the threat," comments the union leader. "The company usually agrees to the contract."

However this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally of Latvian origin, started working with the automaker several years ago. He claims that wages and work terms were often dependent on the discretion of supervisors.

He remembers a performance review at which he says he was refused an annual pay rise on grounds that he "failing to meet company targets". At the same time, a colleague was said to be turned down for increased compensation because he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, not everyone went out on strike. The company employed approximately 130 mechanics employed when the strike was initiated. IF Metall states that today approximately 70 of their represented workers are on strike.

The automaker has since substituted the striking workers with replacement staff, for which there is not occurred since the 1930s.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly & systematically," states German Bender, an analyst at a research institute, a think tank supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not against the law, this being important to recognize. However it violates all traditional norms. Yet Tesla doesn't care about norms.

"They want to be norm breakers. So if somebody informs them, hey, you are breaking a norm, they perceive this as praise."

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

In fact, the automaker has granted only one press discussion during the entire period since the strike began.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, the executive, informed a financial publication that it suited the organization better to avoid a collective agreement, and rather "to work closely with employees and provide workers the best possible terms".

Mr Stark rejected that the choice not to enter a collective agreement was one made at Tesla headquarters overseas. "Our division possesses authorization to make independent such decisions," he said.

The union is not entirely alone in this conflict. This industrial action has received backing from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Norway & Finland, decline to process Teslas; rubbish is not removed from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; and recently constructed charging stations remain connected to power networks in the country.

There is an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which twenty charging units remain unused. But a Tesla enthusiast, the president of an owner's club the Swedish Tesla association, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There's another charging station six miles from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to still purchase vehicles, we can maintain our vehicles, we can power our cars."

With stakes significant on both sides, it's hard to envision a resolution to the stand-off. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern if it concedes the principle of collective agreement.

"The concern is how that would spread," states the researcher, "and ultimately {erode