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Across Sweden, approximately 70 car technicians persist to challenge one of the globe's richest corporations – Tesla. This industrial action at the American carmaker's ten Swedish service centers has currently entered its second anniversary, and there is little sign of a settlement.

One striking worker has been at the Tesla protest line starting from the autumn of 2023.

"It has been a difficult time," states the 39-year-old. And as the nation's cold seasonal conditions arrives, it's likely to become even tougher.

The mechanic devotes every start of the week alongside a fellow worker, standing near an electric vehicle garage on an industrial park located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides shelter via a mobile builders' van, plus coffee and sandwiches.

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

This industrial action involves an issue that reaches to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the authority of trade unions to bargain for pay & working terms on behalf of their workforce. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned labor dynamics across the nation for almost one hundred years.

Today approximately 70% of Swedish workers are members of a trade union, while ninety percent are covered by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation are rare.

This is a system welcomed across the board. "We prefer the right to bargain directly with the unions and establish labor contracts," states Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

However Tesla has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal chief executive the company leader has stated he "opposes" with the idea of unions. "I simply don't like anything that establishes a sort of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed an audience in New York last year. "I think labor groups try to create conflict in a company."

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

"Yet they wouldn't reply," states the union president, the organization's leader. "And we got the impression that they attempted to avoid or not discuss the matter with us."

She states the organization ultimately found no alternative except to announce industrial action, which started on 27 October, last year. "Typically the threat suffices to issue the threat," says the union leader. "The company typically signs the contract."

However not on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He claims that pay & work terms frequently dependent on the whim of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he states he was refused a salary increase because that he "failing to meet company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was said to be turned down for increased compensation because he had the "wrong attitude".

However, some workers went out in the industrial action. The company employed approximately one hundred thirty mechanics employed when the industrial action was called. IF Metall says currently around seventy of its members are participating in the action.

Tesla has long since replaced these with replacement staff, for which there is not occurred since the era of the 1930s.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and methodically," says German Bender, a researcher at Arena Idé, a think tank supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not illegal, this being crucial to recognize. However it violates all traditional practices. Yet the company doesn't care about norms.

"They aim to become norm breakers. Thus when somebody informs them, listen, you are breaking a norm, they perceive that as a compliment."

The company's Swedish subsidiary refused requests for comment in an email mentioning "all-time high vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the company has granted only one press discussion in the two years since the industrial action began.

Earlier this year, the local division's "country lead", the executive, informed a business paper that it benefited the organization more to avoid a union contract, and rather "to work closely with the team and give workers the best possible conditions".

The executive denied that the decision not to enter a collective agreement was determined at Tesla headquarters in the US. "Our division possesses authorization to take our own such decisions," he stated.

The union is not entirely isolated in its fight. This industrial action has received backing from several of other unions.

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries and neighboring states, decline to process Teslas; rubbish is no longer removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; and newly built charging stations are not being linked to power networks in the country.

Exists an example close to the capital's airport, where twenty chargers stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says Tesla owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's an alternative power point 10km from here," he comments. "Plus we are able to continue to buy our cars, we can maintain our cars, we can power our electric cars."

With consequences high for all parties, it's hard to see an end to the stand-off. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

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