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Across Sweden, around seventy car mechanics continue to confront one of the globe's richest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action targeting the US automaker's ten Scandinavian repair facilities has currently reached its second anniversary, and there is minimal sign of a resolution.

Janis Kuzma has been on the electric car company's picket line starting from the autumn of 2023.

"It's a tough time," states the 39-year-old. And as Sweden's chilly seasonal conditions sets in, it is expected to grow even tougher.

Janis spends each Monday alongside a colleague, standing outside an electric vehicle service center within a business district in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, provides shelter via a portable construction vehicle, as well as hot beverages and sandwiches.

However it remains operations continue normally nearby, where the service facility appears to be in full swing.

This industrial action involves a matter that goes to the heart of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the right of trade unions to negotiate pay and working terms representing their workforce. This concept of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics across the nation for nearly a century.

Today some seventy percent of Swedish employees belong to labor organizations, and ninety percent fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages across the nation are rare.

It's a system supported by all parties. "We favor the right to negotiate freely with the unions and sign labor contracts," states Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses business organization.

But Tesla has upset established practices. Vocal chief executive the company leader has stated he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of anything which creates a sort of hierarchical sort of thing," he told listeners at an event in 2023. "I think the unions attempt to create conflict within businesses."

Tesla entered Sweden back in the mid-2010s, while the metalworkers' union has for years wanted to secure a labor contract with the company.

"But they wouldn't reply," states the union president, the union's president. "We formed the impression that they tried to hide away or evade discussing this with us."

She says the union eventually found no other option than to call industrial action, which started in late October, 2023. "Usually it's enough to issue the threat," says the union leader. "The company usually agrees to the agreement."

But this did not happen on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, began employment with the automaker in 2021. He asserts that wages & work terms frequently dependent on the discretion of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he says he was denied a salary increase on grounds that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was said to have been rejected for a pay rise due to he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers participated on strike. Tesla had some one hundred thirty mechanics working at the time the industrial action was initiated. The union states currently around seventy of its members are on strike.

The automaker has since substituted the striking workers with replacement staff, for which that has not occurred since the era of the 1930s.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly and methodically," says a labor researcher, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not against the law, which is important to recognize. But it goes against all established practices. But Tesla shows no concern about norms.

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

The company's local division refused attempts for comment in an email mentioning "all-time high vehicle shipments".

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

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a business paper that it suited the company better to avoid a collective agreement, and rather "to work closely with the team and provide them the best possible conditions".

Mr Stark denied that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined by US leadership in the US. "Our division possesses authorization to take independent such decisions," he stated.

The union is not entirely isolated in this conflict. This industrial action has received backing by a number of other unions.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Denmark, Norway & neighboring states, are refusing to process the company's vehicles; rubbish is not collected from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; and recently constructed charging stations remain linked to power networks across the nation.

There is an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where 20 charging units stand idle. However Tibor Blomhäll, the president of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists another charging station 10km from here," he says. "Plus we are able to continue to purchase vehicles, we can service our vehicles, we can power our cars."

With consequences high on both sides, it is difficult to envision an end to the stand-off. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

"The worry is that this could expand," says the researcher, "and eventually {erode