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In Sweden, around seventy car technicians persist to confront among the globe's richest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The labor strike at the US automaker's 10 Swedish repair facilities has now entered its second anniversary, with minimal sign of a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has been on the Tesla protest line since the autumn of 2023.

"It's a tough period," states the worker in his late thirties. And as the nation's chilly seasonal conditions arrives, it is expected to grow even tougher.

Janis devotes each Monday with a fellow worker, standing near a Tesla service center within a business district in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, provides accommodation via a mobile builders' van, as well as coffee & light meals.

But it's business as usual across the road, at which the workshop appears to be in full swing.

This industrial action concerns a matter that reaches to the core of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to negotiate pay & working terms on behalf of their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly a century.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's workers are members of a trade union, and ninety percent are covered by a collective agreement. Strikes in Sweden are rare.

This is an arrangement welcomed by all parties. "We prefer the ability to negotiate freely with the unions and establish labor contracts," states a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

However Tesla has upset the apple cart. Outspoken chief executive Elon Musk has said he "disagrees" with the concept of unions. "I simply don't like any arrangement which creates a sort of hierarchical situation," he told listeners at an event in 2023. "In my view the unions try to create conflict in a company."

Tesla came to Sweden back in 2014, while IF Metall has long sought to secure a collective agreement with the company.

"But they did not respond," says Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "And we got the impression that they attempted to hide away or not discuss the matter with our representatives."

She states the organization ultimately saw no alternative than to call a strike, beginning in late October, 2023. "Typically the threat suffices to make the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "The company typically signs the contract."

However this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, who is from Latvia, began employment for Tesla several years ago. He claims that pay and conditions were often dependent on the whim of managers.

He recalls a performance review at which he states he was denied an annual pay rise on grounds he was "failing to meet Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a coworker was reported to be rejected for increased compensation because he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, some workers went out in the industrial action. The company had approximately one hundred thirty mechanics employed when the strike was called. The union states currently approximately 70 of their represented workers are participating in the action.

Tesla has long since replaced the striking workers with new workers, a situation that has not occurred since the 1930s.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly & methodically," states a labor researcher, an analyst at a research institute, a think tank financed by Swedish trade unions.

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

"They aim to be convention challengers. So if anyone tells them, listen, you are breaking a norm, they perceive that as a compliment."

The company's Swedish subsidiary declined requests for comment in an email citing "record vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the company has granted just a single media interview during the entire period since the industrial action began.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a business paper that it benefited the organization more to avoid a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and provide workers optimal conditions".

Mr Stark denied that the decision to avoid a labor contract was one made at Tesla headquarters overseas. "Our division possesses authorization to make our own such decisions," he stated.

IF Metall is not entirely isolated in its fight. This industrial action has received backing by a number of other unions.

Dockworkers in nearby Denmark, Norway and neighboring states, are refusing to process Teslas; waste is no longer collected from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; while recently constructed charging stations remain connected to power networks across the nation.

There is an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where twenty charging units stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of an owner's club the Swedish Tesla association, states Tesla owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's another charging station six miles from here," he says. "Plus we are able to still buy our cars, we can maintain our cars, we can charge our cars."

With stakes high on both sides, it's hard to envision an end to the stand-off. The union risks establishing a pattern if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

"The concern is how this could expand," states the researcher, "and ultimately {erode