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Across Sweden, approximately 70 car mechanics continue to confront among the globe's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The labor strike targeting the US carmaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, and there is little sign for a settlement.

One striking worker has been at the electric car company's protest line starting from the autumn of 2023.

"It has been a difficult time," remarks the 39-year-old. And as the nation's chilly winter weather sets in, it's likely to grow more challenging.

Janis devotes each Monday alongside a colleague, positioned near a Tesla service center within an industrial park in Malmö. The labor organization, IF Metall, provides accommodation via a mobile construction vehicle, plus coffee and light meals.

However it remains business as usual nearby, where the service facility appears to be at full capacity.

The strike involves an issue that reaches to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the authority for worker organizations to bargain for wages & working terms representing their members. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly one hundred years.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Swedish employees are members to labor organizations, and 90% are covered by a collective agreement. Strikes in Sweden occur infrequently.

It's a system supported across the board. "We favor the ability to negotiate directly with worker representatives and sign labor contracts," states Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

But Tesla has disrupted established practices. Outspoken chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I simply disapprove of any arrangement that establishes a kind of hierarchical sort of thing," he told an audience in New York last year. "I think the unions try to generate negativity in a company."

Tesla came to the Scandinavian market starting in 2014, and the metalworkers' union has for years sought to secure a collective agreement with the company.

"But they wouldn't respond," states Marie Nilsson, the union's president. "We formed the belief that they tried to avoid or evade discussing the matter with our representatives."

She says the organization ultimately found no alternative except to call a strike, beginning on 27 October, 2023. "Typically it's enough to make the threat," comments the union leader. "Employers typically agrees to the contract."

But not in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is from Latvia, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that pay & conditions were often subject to the whim of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting at which he says he was denied an annual pay rise on grounds he was "failing to meet Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to be rejected for increased compensation due to having the "wrong attitude".

However, some workers participated in the industrial action. The company employed some one hundred thirty technicians employed when the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall says that today approximately seventy of its members are on strike.

Tesla has long since substituted these with replacement staff, for which there is not occurred since the Great Depression.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and methodically," says a labor researcher, an analyst at Arena Idé, a policy organization financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not illegal, this being important to recognize. But it violates all established practices. But the company doesn't care about norms.

"They aim to be norm breakers. Thus when anyone informs them, listen, you are breaking a standard, they perceive this as a compliment."

The company's Swedish subsidiary declined attempts for interview in an email mentioning "all-time high deliveries".

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

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", the executive, told a financial publication that it suited the organization better not to have a union contract, and rather "to work closely with the team and provide them the best possible terms".

Mr Stark rejected that the decision to avoid a labor contract was determined at Tesla headquarters in the US. "Our division possesses a mandate to make independent such decisions," he said.

IF Metall is not completely alone in this conflict. The strike has been supported from several of other unions.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Denmark, Nordic countries & neighboring states, are refusing to handle Teslas; waste is not removed from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; while newly built power points remain linked to the grid in the country.

There is an example near the capital's airport, where twenty charging units remain unused. However a Tesla enthusiast, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There exists another charging station six miles from this location," he comments. "And we can still purchase vehicles, we can maintain our cars, we can charge our cars."

With stakes significant for all parties, it's hard to envision a resolution to the deadlock. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern if it concedes the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

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