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In Sweden, approximately seventy automotive mechanics persist to challenge one of the world's wealthiest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action targeting the US automaker's ten Scandinavian service centers has currently reached its second anniversary, and there is minimal indication for a resolution.

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

"It's a tough period," states the worker in his late thirties. And as the nation's cold seasonal conditions arrives, it is expected to become more challenging.

Janis spends each Monday alongside a colleague, positioned near an electric vehicle garage within an industrial park located in southern Sweden. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides accommodation via a portable construction vehicle, plus hot beverages & sandwiches.

But it remains business as usual across the road, where the workshop seems to operate in full swing.

The strike concerns a matter that goes to the heart of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the authority for worker organizations to negotiate wages and conditions representing their workforce. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned industrial relations in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Currently some seventy percent of Scandinavia's employees are members of a trade union, and 90% are covered by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages in Sweden occur infrequently.

It's a system supported across the board. "We favor the ability to bargain directly with worker representatives and establish collective agreements," states Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses business organization.

However Tesla has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal chief executive Elon Musk has said he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I simply don't like anything which creates a sort of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed listeners in New York in 2023. "In my view the unions attempt to create negativity within businesses."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market back in the mid-2010s, and the metalworkers' union has for years wanted to establish a labor contract with the company.

"But they did not reply," states the union president, the union's president. "And we got the belief that they attempted to avoid or not discuss the matter with our representatives."

She states the organization eventually found no other option than to announce industrial action, which started on 27 October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to issue the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "The company typically agrees to the agreement."

But this did not happen in this case.

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

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he states he was refused an annual pay rise because he was "failing to meet Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was said to be rejected for a pay rise because having an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, not everyone went out on strike. Tesla had approximately 130 mechanics employed at the time the strike was called. IF Metall states currently approximately 70 of its members are participating in the action.

Tesla has since replaced the striking workers with replacement staff, a situation there is not occurred since the era of the 1930s.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] publicly and methodically," says German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a think tank financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not illegal, which is crucial to recognize. But it goes against all established norms. But Tesla shows no concern about norms.

"They aim to be norm breakers. Thus when somebody tells them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as a compliment."

The company's Swedish subsidiary refused attempts for comment via correspondence citing "all-time high deliveries".

In fact, the automaker has granted only one press discussion in the two years since the strike began.

Earlier this year, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a business paper that it suited the company more not to have a union contract, and rather "to work closely with employees and provide workers optimal conditions".

Mr Stark rejected that the decision to avoid a labor contract was one made by US leadership in the US. "We have a mandate to take our own such decisions," he stated.

IF Metall is not entirely alone in its fight. The strike has been supported from several of labor organizations.

Port workers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Norway and neighboring states, decline to process the company's vehicles; rubbish is no longer collected from Tesla's Swedish facilities; while newly built charging stations remain connected to power networks in the country.

Exists an example close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where twenty chargers stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the president of an owner's club the Swedish Tesla association, states Tesla owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There exists another charging station 10km from here," he says. "And we can still buy our cars, we can maintain our vehicles, we can power our cars."

With consequences significant for all parties, it is difficult to envision an end to the stand-off. IF Metall faces the danger of setting a precedent if it concedes the principle of collective agreement.

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