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Across Sweden, approximately seventy car mechanics continue to confront among the globe's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action at the US automaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has currently entered two years of duration, with little sign for a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has remained at the electric car company's protest line starting from the autumn of 2023.

"It's a difficult period," remarks the worker in his late thirties. And as Sweden's cold winter weather sets in, it is expected to grow even tougher.

The mechanic spends each Monday alongside a colleague, standing outside a Tesla service center on a business district in Malmö. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies shelter via a portable builders' van, as well as hot beverages & light meals.

However it's operations continue normally across the road, where the service facility appears to operate in full swing.

The strike involves an issue that reaches to the heart of Swedish industrial culture – the right of trade unions to negotiate pay and conditions on behalf of their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has supported industrial relations in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Swedish workers belong of a trade union, while 90% are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

This is a system supported by all parties. "We prefer the ability to negotiate directly with worker representatives and sign labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

But Tesla has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just don't like anything which creates a sort of hierarchical situation," he informed an audience at an event last year. "I think labor groups try to generate negativity within businesses."

Tesla entered the Scandinavian market starting in the mid-2010s, while the metalworkers' union has for years sought to establish a collective agreement with the company.

"But they wouldn't reply," states Marie Nilsson, the organization's leader. "And we got the belief that they tried to hide away or evade discussing the matter with our representatives."

She says the organization eventually saw no other option except to announce a strike, which started on 27 October, 2023. "Typically it's enough to make the threat," comments the union leader. "The company typically signs the contract."

However not in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally of Latvian origin, began employment with the automaker several years ago. He claims that wages and work terms were often dependent on the whim of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting at which he says he was refused a salary increase because he was "failing to meet Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a coworker was reported to be turned down for a pay rise due to having an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers went out in the industrial action. The company employed some one hundred thirty technicians employed at the time the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall states currently approximately 70 of its members are participating in the action.

The automaker has since replaced these with new workers, for which there is no precedent since the era of the Great Depression.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] openly and methodically," says a labor researcher, an analyst at Arena Idé, a policy organization financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not illegal, which is crucial to recognize. However it goes against all traditional norms. But the company doesn't care for conventions.

"They aim to be convention challengers. So if somebody tells them, listen, you are breaking a norm, they perceive that as praise."

The company's local division refused requests for comment via correspondence citing "all-time high vehicle shipments".

In fact, the automaker has given just a single press discussion during the entire period since the strike started.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, the executive, told a business paper that it suited the organization better not to have a union contract, and rather "to collaborate directly with the team and provide them optimal conditions".

Mr Stark rejected that the choice not to enter a labor contract was one made at Tesla headquarters in the US. "Our division possesses authorization to take our own such decisions," he said.

The union is not completely isolated in this conflict. The strike has been supported by a number of other unions.

Port workers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & Finland, decline to process the company's vehicles; rubbish is no longer removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; while recently constructed charging stations are not being connected to power networks in the country.

Exists one such facility near the capital's airport, at which twenty charging units stand idle. However Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There's another charging station 10km from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to continue to purchase vehicles, we can maintain our vehicles, we can power our cars."

With stakes significant on both sides, it is difficult to envision an end to the stand-off. The union risks setting a precedent should it surrender the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

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