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In Sweden, approximately seventy car mechanics persist to challenge among the world's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This labor strike targeting the American carmaker's ten Swedish service centers has currently reached its second anniversary, and there is little sign of a resolution.

One striking worker has remained on the electric car company's protest line since October 2023.

"It's a difficult period," remarks the 39-year-old. And as the nation's cold seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to grow more challenging.

The mechanic spends every start of the week alongside a fellow worker, positioned near a Tesla garage on a business district in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, supplies accommodation in the form of a mobile construction vehicle, as well as hot beverages and sandwiches.

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

This industrial action involves an issue that goes to the heart of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the right of trade unions to bargain for wages & working terms representing their members. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned industrial relations in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Today approximately 70% of Swedish employees belong of a trade union, while ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages across the nation are rare.

This is an arrangement supported across the board. "We favor the ability to bargain freely with worker representatives and sign collective agreements," states a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

However Tesla has disrupted established practices. Outspoken chief executive the company leader has said he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply don't like anything which creates a sort of hierarchical situation," he informed an audience at an event last year. "I think the unions attempt to generate negativity in a company."

Tesla entered Sweden back in the mid-2010s, while the metalworkers' union has for years wanted to secure a collective agreement with the automaker.

"But they did not respond," states the union president, the organization's president. "We formed the impression that they tried to avoid or not discuss this with us."

She states the organization ultimately saw no other option than to call a strike, beginning on 27 October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to issue a warning," says Ms Nilsson. "The company usually agrees to the contract."

However not in this case.

Janis Kuzma, originally of Latvian origin, started working for Tesla several years ago. He claims that wages & work terms frequently subject to the discretion of managers.

He remembers an evaluation meeting where he states he was refused a salary increase because he was "failing to meet company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to be rejected for increased compensation because he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers went out in the industrial action. Tesla had approximately one hundred thirty technicians working at the time the industrial action was called. The union says currently approximately 70 of its members are participating in the action.

The automaker has since substituted the striking workers with new workers, a situation there is no precedent since the era of the 1930s.

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

"It is not illegal, which is important to recognize. But it goes against all established norms. But Tesla doesn't care about norms.

"They aim to become convention challengers. Thus when anyone informs them, hey, you are breaking a norm, they see that as praise."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary refused requests for interview via correspondence citing "all-time high deliveries".

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

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it benefited the company better not to have a collective agreement, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and give workers the best possible terms".

Mr Stark rejected that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined by US leadership overseas. "We have authorization to make independent such choices," he stated.

IF Metall is not entirely alone in this conflict. This industrial action has been supported from several of other unions.

Port workers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Norway & neighboring states, decline to handle the company's vehicles; waste is not collected from Tesla's Swedish facilities; and newly built charging stations are not being connected to power networks in the country.

Exists an example near the capital's airport, at which 20 charging units stand idle. But Tibor Blomhäll, the president of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, states vehicle owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists an alternative power point 10km from this location," he says. "And we can continue to purchase vehicles, we can maintain our vehicles, we can power our electric cars."

With consequences high for all parties, it's hard to envision an end to the deadlock. IF Metall faces the danger of setting a precedent if it concedes the principle of collective agreement.

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