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In Sweden, approximately 70 car technicians persist to confront one of the globe's richest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The industrial action at the US automaker's ten Scandinavian service centers has currently entered two years of duration, with little sign of a resolution.

Janis Kuzma has remained on the Tesla picket line since October 2023.

"It has been a difficult period," states the worker in his late thirties. With Sweden's cold winter weather arrives, it's likely to become more challenging.

Janis spends each Monday alongside a fellow worker, standing near an electric vehicle garage within an industrial park in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, provides shelter via a mobile builders' van, plus hot beverages and light meals.

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

The strike involves a matter that goes to the heart of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the authority for worker organizations to negotiate wages & working terms on behalf of their members. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly one hundred years.

Currently approximately 70% of Swedish employees belong of a trade union, while ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages in Sweden occur infrequently.

It's a system welcomed across the board. "We favor the ability to bargain directly with worker representatives and establish collective agreements," states a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

But the electric car company has upset established practices. Outspoken CEO the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of anything that establishes a kind of hierarchical situation," he told listeners at an event last year. "In my view the unions try to generate conflict in a company."

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

"But they did not reply," states the union president, the union's leader. "And we got the belief that they tried to hide away or evade discussing this with us."

She says the organization ultimately saw no other option except to call industrial action, which started on 27 October, last year. "Usually it's enough to issue a warning," says Ms Nilsson. "Employers usually agrees to the contract."

But this did not happen in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is of Latvian origin, began employment for Tesla several years ago. He claims that wages & conditions frequently dependent on the discretion of supervisors.

He recalls a performance review where he says he was refused a salary increase because that he "failing to meet Tesla's goals". At the same time, a colleague was said to be turned down for a pay rise because he had the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, some workers went out in the industrial action. The company had approximately 130 technicians employed when the strike was initiated. IF Metall states currently approximately seventy of their represented workers are on strike.

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

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly & systematically," states German Bender, a researcher at Arena Idé, a think tank financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not against the law, which is important to understand. However it goes against all established practices. Yet Tesla shows no concern for conventions.

"They want to be convention challengers. Thus when somebody tells them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as praise."

The company's Swedish subsidiary refused attempts for interview via correspondence mentioning "record deliveries".

In fact, the automaker has granted only one press discussion in the two years after the strike started.

Earlier this year, the local division's "country lead", the executive, informed a business paper that it benefited the organization more not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to work closely with employees and give workers optimal conditions".

The executive rejected that the choice to avoid a collective agreement was one made by US leadership overseas. "Our division possesses a mandate to make our own such decisions," he stated.

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

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & Finland, decline to handle Teslas; waste is not collected from the automaker's Swedish facilities; while newly built charging stations remain connected to power networks across the nation.

There is an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where 20 chargers stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the president of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There's another charging station 10km from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to still buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can power our electric cars."

With consequences significant on both sides, it is difficult to envision a resolution to the stand-off. The union risks setting a precedent if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

"The concern is that that would spread," says Mr Bender, "and ultimately {erode