🔗 Share this article

In Sweden, approximately seventy automotive technicians continue to confront among the globe's richest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The industrial action targeting the US carmaker's 10 Swedish repair facilities has currently reached its second anniversary, with minimal sign for a resolution.

One striking worker has remained at the Tesla protest line starting from October 2023.

"It has been a difficult period," remarks the 39-year-old. And as Sweden's cold seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to become even tougher.

The mechanic spends each Monday alongside a colleague, standing near a Tesla garage on a business district located in southern Sweden. His union, IF Metall, provides shelter via a portable construction vehicle, plus hot beverages and light meals.

But it's operations continue normally nearby, at which the workshop appears to operate in full swing.

This industrial action involves an issue that goes to the core of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to bargain for pay & working terms representing their workforce. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly a century.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Swedish workers are members of a trade union, while ninety percent fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes in Sweden occur infrequently.

It's an arrangement supported across the board. "We favor the right to negotiate directly with worker representatives and sign collective agreements," states a business representative from the Association of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

But Tesla has upset established practices. Outspoken chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "opposes" with the idea of labor organizations. "I simply don't like anything that establishes a sort of hierarchical situation," he informed listeners at an event in 2023. "I think labor groups try to create negativity within businesses."

Tesla entered the Scandinavian market back in 2014, while the metalworkers' union has for years sought to secure a collective agreement with the automaker.

"Yet they did not reply," states the union president, the union's leader. "And we got the belief that they tried to hide away or not discuss this with our representatives."

She states the union ultimately found no alternative than to announce a strike, which started in late October, 2023. "Typically it's enough to make the threat," says Ms Nilsson. "Employers usually agrees to the contract."

However not on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, who is of Latvian origin, started working with the automaker several years ago. He claims that wages and work terms were often subject to the whim of managers.

He remembers a performance review where he states he was refused a salary increase because that he "failing to meet Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was reported to be rejected for a pay rise because he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, not everyone participated in the industrial action. Tesla had some one hundred thirty mechanics working at the time the industrial action was initiated. The union states that today approximately seventy of their represented workers are on strike.

The automaker has since replaced the striking workers with replacement staff, for which that has not occurred since the 1930s.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] openly & systematically," says German Bender, a researcher at Arena Idé, a policy organization financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not against the law, which is important to recognize. But it goes against all traditional norms. Yet Tesla shows no concern for conventions.

"They want to be norm breakers. So if anyone tells them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive that as praise."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary refused attempts for comment in an email mentioning "record vehicle shipments".

In fact, the automaker has given just a single press discussion in the two years since the strike began.

In March 2024, the local division's "national manager, the executive, informed a financial publication that it benefited the organization more to avoid a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and give workers optimal conditions".

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

The union is not entirely isolated in its fight. This industrial action has received backing from several of other unions.

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & Finland, are refusing to process Teslas; rubbish is not removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; while recently constructed charging stations remain connected to the grid in the country.

Exists one such facility close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which 20 chargers stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, states vehicle owners remain unaffected by the strike.

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

With stakes high for all parties, it's hard to see a resolution to the deadlock. The union risks setting a precedent should it surrender the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

"The worry is that that would spread," states the researcher, "and eventually {erode