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In Sweden, around seventy car mechanics continue to confront one of the globe's richest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action at the American carmaker's 10 Scandinavian service centers has currently reached its second anniversary, and there is minimal sign of a settlement.

One striking worker has remained at the Tesla protest line since October 2023.

"It's a tough time," states the worker in his late thirties. And as the nation's chilly seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to grow even tougher.

Janis devotes each Monday with a colleague, standing near an electric vehicle garage within an industrial park located in southern Sweden. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides shelter via a portable construction vehicle, as well as coffee & sandwiches.

But it remains business as usual across the road, at which the workshop seems to be in full swing.

The strike involves an issue that reaches to the core of Swedish industrial culture – the authority of trade unions to negotiate wages and conditions on behalf of their workforce. This concept of collective agreement has underpinned industrial relations across the nation for nearly one hundred years.

Today approximately 70% of Scandinavia's workers belong of a trade union, and ninety percent fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes in Sweden are rare.

This is a system supported across the board. "We favor the right to negotiate directly with worker representatives and establish labor contracts," states Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses business organization.

But the electric car company has upset established practices. Vocal chief executive the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I just don't like any arrangement which creates a sort of hierarchical situation," he informed an audience in New York in 2023. "In my view labor groups try to create negativity within businesses."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market back in the mid-2010s, while IF Metall has long wanted to secure a collective agreement with the automaker.

"Yet they wouldn't reply," states Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "And we got the belief that they attempted to hide away or not discuss the matter with us."

She states the organization ultimately saw no alternative than to call a strike, which started on 27 October, 2023. "Usually it's enough to issue a warning," says the union leader. "Employers typically agrees to the agreement."

However this did not happen in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is from Latvia, started working for Tesla in 2021. He claims that pay & conditions were often subject to the discretion of supervisors.

He remembers an evaluation meeting where he says he was refused a salary increase because that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was said to have been turned down for increased compensation due to having the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone went out on strike. The company had approximately one hundred thirty technicians employed at the time the strike was called. The union states currently around 70 of its members are participating in the action.

Tesla has long since substituted the striking workers with new workers, for which there is not occurred since the era of the 1930s.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] openly & methodically," says German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not illegal, this being important to recognize. However it goes against all traditional norms. But the company doesn't care about norms.

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

The company's local division refused attempts for comment via correspondence citing "record deliveries".

In fact, the automaker has granted just a single media interview during the entire period since the strike started.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, Jens Stark, told a business paper that it suited the organization more to avoid a collective agreement, and instead "to work closely with employees and give them optimal conditions".

Mr Stark denied that the choice not to enter a collective agreement was one made at Tesla headquarters overseas. "Our division possesses a mandate to make our own such choices," he said.

The union is not entirely alone in this conflict. The strike has received backing by a number of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Denmark, Norway & neighboring states, are refusing to process Teslas; waste is not removed from Tesla's Swedish facilities; and newly built charging stations remain connected to the grid across the nation.

There is one such facility near the capital's airport, where twenty charging units remain unused. However Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, states Tesla owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists another charging station 10km from this location," he comments. "Plus we are able to still purchase vehicles, we can maintain our cars, we can power our cars."

With stakes high for all parties, it is difficult to see a resolution to the stand-off. The union risks setting a precedent if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

"The worry is that that would spread," states Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode