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In Sweden, approximately seventy car technicians continue to confront one of the globe's richest companies – Tesla. The labor strike at the US carmaker's 10 Swedish repair facilities has now entered two years of duration, with minimal indication of a settlement.

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

"It has been a difficult time," states the 39-year-old. And as Sweden's cold seasonal conditions arrives, it's likely to become more challenging.

The mechanic spends every start of the week with a colleague, positioned outside an electric vehicle service center within an industrial park located in southern Sweden. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies accommodation via a mobile construction vehicle, as well as coffee & sandwiches.

But it remains operations continue normally nearby, where the workshop seems to be in full swing.

This industrial action concerns an issue that goes to the core of Swedish industrial culture – the right of trade unions to negotiate wages & working terms on behalf of their workforce. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for almost a century.

Currently approximately 70% of Swedish workers belong to labor organizations, and ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

It's an arrangement welcomed by all parties. "We favor the right to bargain directly with worker representatives and establish labor contracts," says a business representative from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

However Tesla has upset established practices. Outspoken chief executive Elon Musk has said he "opposes" with the idea of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of anything which creates a kind of hierarchical sort of thing," he told an audience in New York in 2023. "In my view the unions try to create conflict within businesses."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market back in 2014, while the metalworkers' union has for years wanted to establish a collective agreement with the automaker.

"Yet they wouldn't reply," states Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "We formed the impression that they attempted to avoid or not discuss this with us."

She says the union eventually found no alternative except to announce a strike, beginning on 27 October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to make a warning," says the union leader. "Employers usually signs the agreement."

But not in this case.

Janis Kuzma, originally from Latvia, started working with the automaker in 2021. He asserts that wages and conditions frequently dependent on the whim of managers.

He recalls an evaluation meeting at which he states he was denied a salary increase on grounds he was "not reaching Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a coworker was reported to be turned down for increased compensation due to he had the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, not everyone participated in the industrial action. Tesla had approximately 130 mechanics working when the industrial action was called. The union says that today approximately 70 of their represented workers are participating in the action.

The automaker has long since substituted these with replacement staff, a situation there is no precedent since the 1930s.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and methodically," says German Bender, a researcher at Arena Idé, a policy organization supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not illegal, which is crucial to recognize. However it goes against all established norms. Yet the company shows no concern for conventions.

"They aim to become convention challengers. So if somebody informs them, listen, you are breaking a standard, they see this as praise."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary refused attempts for comment in an email citing "all-time high deliveries".

Indeed, the company has granted only one press discussion in the two years after the industrial action started.

Earlier this year, the local division's "national manager, Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it suited the company more to avoid a union contract, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and provide them optimal conditions".

Mr Stark denied that the choice to avoid a collective agreement was one made at Tesla headquarters overseas. "We have a mandate to make independent such decisions," he stated.

The union is not entirely alone in its fight. The strike has received backing by a number of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Norway & neighboring states, are refusing to handle Teslas; waste is not collected from the automaker's Swedish facilities; and newly built power points are not being linked to the grid in the country.

Exists one such facility close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where 20 chargers stand idle. However a Tesla enthusiast, the president of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There's an alternative power point 10km from here," he says. "Plus we are able to still purchase vehicles, we can maintain our cars, we can power our cars."

With consequences significant for all parties, it is difficult to see a resolution to the stand-off. IF Metall risks setting a precedent if it concedes the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

"The worry is that this could expand," says Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode