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In Sweden, around seventy automotive mechanics persist to confront among the world's wealthiest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The industrial action at the American carmaker's ten Swedish service centers has currently entered two years of duration, with little indication of a resolution.

One striking worker has remained on the electric car company's picket line since the autumn of 2023.

"It has been a difficult time," remarks the 39-year-old. With the nation's cold seasonal conditions arrives, it is expected to grow even tougher.

The mechanic spends each Monday with a colleague, positioned near a Tesla service center on a business district in Malmö. The labor organization, IF Metall, supplies accommodation in the form of a mobile builders' van, plus coffee & sandwiches.

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

The strike involves an issue that reaches to the core of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the right for worker organizations to negotiate pay and conditions representing their workforce. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics across the nation for almost one hundred years.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Swedish workers belong to labor organizations, and 90% are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes in Sweden are rare.

It's a system welcomed across the board. "We favor the ability to bargain freely with the unions and sign collective agreements," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

However the electric car company has disrupted established practices. Outspoken CEO Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of anything which creates a kind of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed listeners at an event in 2023. "In my view the unions attempt to create conflict in a company."

Tesla came to the Scandinavian market starting in the mid-2010s, while IF Metall has long sought to secure a collective agreement with the automaker.

"Yet they wouldn't respond," states the union president, the organization's president. "We formed the impression that they tried to avoid or not discuss the matter with us."

She states the organization ultimately found no other option than to call a strike, which started in late October, last year. "Typically the threat suffices to make the threat," says the union leader. "The company usually agrees to the agreement."

However not on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, who is of Latvian origin, started working with the automaker in 2021. He asserts that pay and work terms frequently dependent on the discretion of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he states he was denied an annual pay rise because that he "not reaching company targets". At the same time, a coworker was reported to have been turned down for increased compensation because having the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, not everyone went out on strike. Tesla had some 130 mechanics working when the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall says that today around seventy of its members are on strike.

Tesla has since substituted these with replacement staff, a situation that has not occurred since the Great Depression.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] publicly and methodically," states German Bender, a researcher at Arena Idé, a think tank financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not illegal, which is crucial to understand. But it goes against all established norms. But Tesla shows no concern about norms.

"They aim to become convention challengers. Thus when anyone tells them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as a compliment."

The company's local division declined requests for interview in an email citing "all-time high vehicle shipments".

In fact, the company has granted just a single press discussion in the two years since the industrial action began.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, the executive, told a financial publication that it suited the company better to avoid a collective agreement, and instead "to work closely with employees and give workers optimal terms".

The executive denied that the choice to avoid a labor contract was determined at Tesla headquarters in the US. "We have authorization to take our own such decisions," he said.

The union is not entirely alone in its fight. The strike has been supported from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Denmark, Norway and neighboring states, are refusing to process the company's vehicles; rubbish is not collected from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; while recently constructed charging stations remain connected to power networks in the country.

Exists one such facility close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where 20 chargers 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 six miles from here," he comments. "And we can continue to buy our cars, we can maintain our vehicles, we can power our cars."

With stakes significant on both sides, it's hard to envision an end to the stand-off. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

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