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In Sweden, approximately 70 automotive mechanics persist to challenge among the world's richest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This labor strike targeting the American automaker's 10 Swedish repair facilities has now reached two years of duration, with minimal indication of a resolution.

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

"It has been a tough time," remarks the 39-year-old. And as the nation's cold winter weather arrives, it's likely to become more challenging.

Janis spends every start of the week alongside a colleague, standing near an electric vehicle garage within a business district located in southern Sweden. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides accommodation via a portable builders' van, as well as coffee & sandwiches.

However it's operations continue normally nearby, at which the service facility seems to be at full capacity.

The strike concerns an issue that reaches to the heart of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the right for worker organizations to negotiate pay and working terms representing their members. This concept of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics across the nation for almost one hundred years.

Currently some seventy percent of Scandinavia's employees are members to labor organizations, and ninety percent fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages in Sweden occur infrequently.

This is an arrangement welcomed across the board. "We prefer the ability to bargain freely with the unions and establish collective agreements," states Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

However Tesla has disrupted established practices. Outspoken CEO Elon Musk has said he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply don't like anything which creates a kind of lords and peasants sort of thing," he informed an audience in New York last year. "I think labor groups try to generate negativity in a company."

The automaker came to the Scandinavian market back in 2014, while IF Metall has long sought to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"But they did not respond," says Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "We formed the belief that they tried to hide away or evade discussing this with our representatives."

She says the organization ultimately found no alternative except to announce industrial action, beginning in late October, 2023. "Typically it's enough to issue a warning," says the union leader. "The company typically signs the contract."

But this did not happen on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, began employment with the automaker in 2021. He asserts that pay and conditions frequently subject to the whim of managers.

He recalls a performance review at which he states he was denied a salary increase on grounds that he "not reaching company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was said to have been rejected for increased compensation because he had the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone participated in the industrial action. The company had approximately 130 mechanics working at the time the industrial action was called. IF Metall says currently around seventy of their represented workers are participating in the action.

The automaker has since substituted these with replacement staff, for which there is not occurred since the 1930s.

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] publicly and methodically," states German Bender, a researcher at Arena Idé, a policy organization financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not illegal, which is crucial to understand. But it violates all established norms. Yet Tesla doesn't care about norms.

"They want to become norm breakers. Thus when anyone informs them, hey, you are violating a standard, they see that as a compliment."

The company's local division declined requests for comment via correspondence citing "record deliveries".

Indeed, the company has granted only one media interview during the entire period since the strike began.

In March 2024, 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 instead "to collaborate directly with the team and provide workers optimal conditions".

The executive denied that the decision not to enter a labor contract was one made by US leadership in the US. "Our division possesses a mandate to take our own such decisions," he said.

IF Metall is not entirely isolated in this conflict. The strike has been supported by a number of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & Finland, decline to process Teslas; rubbish is no longer removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; and newly built charging stations remain connected to power networks in the country.

Exists an example near the capital's airport, where twenty charging units stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says Tesla owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There's another charging station six miles from here," he says. "And we can still buy our cars, we can service our vehicles, we can charge our electric cars."

With consequences significant for all parties, it's hard to envision an end to the deadlock. IF Metall risks setting a precedent if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

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