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Across Sweden, around 70 automotive mechanics persist to challenge among the globe's richest companies – Tesla. This labor strike targeting the US automaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, and there is minimal indication for a resolution.

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

"It's a difficult time," states the 39-year-old. And as the nation's cold winter weather arrives, it's likely to grow even tougher.

Janis spends each Monday alongside a colleague, standing near a Tesla garage within a business district located in southern Sweden. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies shelter via a portable builders' van, plus hot beverages and light meals.

However it's business as usual nearby, where the workshop seems to operate in full swing.

This industrial action concerns a matter that goes to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the right of trade unions to bargain for pay and conditions representing their workforce. This concept of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly one hundred years.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's workers belong to labor organizations, while ninety percent fall under by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages in Sweden are rare.

It's a system welcomed by all parties. "We prefer the right to bargain directly with worker representatives and sign labor contracts," states a business representative from the Association of Swedish Businesses business organization.

But Tesla has upset the apple cart. Vocal CEO the company leader has said he "disagrees" with the idea of labor organizations. "I simply don't like any arrangement that establishes a sort of hierarchical situation," he told an audience at an event in 2023. "In my view the unions attempt to create negativity within businesses."

Tesla entered Sweden back in the mid-2010s, while IF Metall has for years wanted to secure a collective agreement with the company.

"Yet they did not reply," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's leader. "And we got the belief that they attempted to hide away or not discuss the matter with us."

She says the union eventually found no other option than to announce industrial action, beginning in late October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to issue a warning," comments Ms Nilsson. "The company usually signs the agreement."

However not on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He claims that pay and conditions frequently dependent on the discretion of supervisors.

He remembers an evaluation meeting where he states he was denied a salary increase because he was "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a colleague was reported to have been turned down for a pay rise due to he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, some workers participated on strike. Tesla had some 130 mechanics employed at the time the strike was initiated. The union states that today around 70 of its members are participating in the action.

The automaker has long since substituted the striking workers with replacement staff, for which there is no precedent since the Great Depression.

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] openly & systematically," says a labor researcher, an analyst at Arena Idé, a think tank supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not against the law, which is important to understand. But it violates all traditional practices. But the company doesn't care about norms.

"They aim to become norm breakers. So if somebody informs them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive that as praise."

The company's Swedish subsidiary declined attempts for comment via correspondence citing "all-time high deliveries".

In fact, the company has given just a single media interview during the entire period since the industrial action began.

In March 2024, the local division's "country lead", the executive, told a business paper that it benefited the organization better to avoid a collective agreement, and instead "to work closely with the team and give them the best possible conditions".

Mr Stark denied that the decision not to enter a labor contract was determined by US leadership in the US. "Our division possesses authorization to take independent such decisions," he said.

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

Port workers in nearby Denmark, Nordic countries and neighboring states, are refusing to handle Teslas; rubbish is not removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; and newly built charging stations remain linked to the grid across the nation.

Exists one such facility close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which 20 charging units stand idle. However a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, states vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There's another charging station 10km from this location," he comments. "And we can still purchase vehicles, we can maintain our vehicles, we can power our cars."

With consequences significant for all parties, it is difficult to see an end to the stand-off. The union faces the danger of establishing a pattern should it surrender the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

"The concern is that this could expand," states Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode