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Across Sweden, approximately 70 automotive mechanics persist to challenge one of the globe's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This labor strike at the US automaker's 10 Scandinavian service centers has currently reached two years of duration, and there is minimal indication of a settlement.

One striking worker has been on the Tesla picket line starting from the autumn of 2023.

"It's a tough time," remarks the 39-year-old. With Sweden's chilly seasonal conditions sets in, it is expected to grow more challenging.

Janis devotes each Monday with a fellow worker, standing near an electric vehicle garage within a business district located in southern Sweden. His union, IF Metall, provides accommodation in the form of a portable construction vehicle, as well as coffee & sandwiches.

However it's business as usual across the road, at which the service facility seems to be in full swing.

This industrial action concerns an issue that reaches to the heart of Swedish industrial culture – the right of trade unions to bargain for pay & working terms on behalf of their members. This concept of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for almost a century.

Currently some seventy percent of Scandinavia's employees are members to labor organizations, and 90% fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

This is a system supported by all parties. "We prefer the ability to bargain freely with worker representatives and establish labor contracts," states Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

But the electric car company has upset established practices. Vocal chief executive the company leader has said he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of anything that establishes a sort of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed listeners in New York last year. "In my view the unions attempt to generate negativity within businesses."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market back in 2014, and the metalworkers' union has long sought to establish a collective agreement with the automaker.

"Yet they wouldn't reply," says Marie Nilsson, the union's president. "We formed the impression that they tried to avoid or evade discussing the matter with us."

She says the organization ultimately saw no alternative than to announce industrial action, beginning on 27 October, last year. "Typically the threat suffices to make the threat," says Ms Nilsson. "Employers usually signs the contract."

But not in this case.

Janis Kuzma, originally of Latvian origin, started working with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that wages and conditions were often dependent on the discretion of managers.

He recalls a performance review at which he says he was denied a salary increase because he was "failing to meet Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was said to be rejected for increased compensation because having the "wrong attitude".

However, some workers went out on strike. The company had approximately one hundred thirty mechanics employed at the time the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall states that today approximately 70 of their represented workers are on strike.

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

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] openly & methodically," says a labor researcher, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not illegal, which is important to understand. However it goes against all traditional norms. Yet Tesla shows no concern about norms.

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

The company's local division declined requests for interview in an email citing "all-time high vehicle shipments".

In fact, the automaker has granted just a single press discussion during the entire period after the industrial action began.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a business paper that it benefited the organization more not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to work closely with the team and give workers optimal terms".

Mr Stark denied that the decision to avoid a labor contract was one made by US leadership in the US. "Our division possesses authorization to make our own such decisions," he said.

IF Metall is not entirely isolated in its fight. This industrial action has received backing by a number of other unions.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries and neighboring states, decline to process the company's vehicles; rubbish is not removed from Tesla's Swedish facilities; and newly built charging stations remain linked to the grid in the country.

There is one such facility near the capital's airport, at which 20 chargers remain unused. But a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists an alternative power point 10km from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to continue to buy our cars, we can service our vehicles, we can charge our cars."

With consequences significant for all parties, it's hard to envision an end to the stand-off. The union risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

"The concern is how this could expand," states the researcher, "and ultimately {erode