Swedish Auto Technicians Participate in Extended Labor Dispute Against Automotive Giant Tesla

In Sweden, approximately seventy automotive mechanics persist to challenge among the globe's richest corporations – Tesla. The industrial action at the US automaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, with minimal indication for a resolution.

One striking worker has been on the Tesla picket line since October 2023.

"It has been a difficult time," states the 39-year-old. And as the nation's cold winter weather sets in, it's likely to become more challenging.

Janis spends every start of the week alongside a fellow worker, positioned near a Tesla service center within an industrial park located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, IF Metall, provides shelter via a mobile builders' van, plus hot beverages & light meals.

But it remains business as usual across the road, at which the workshop seems to operate at full capacity.

The strike involves a matter that reaches to the heart of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the authority for worker organizations to bargain for pay and working terms representing their workforce. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for almost a century.

Today approximately seventy percent of Swedish workers are members of a trade union, and ninety percent fall under by a collective agreement. Strikes in Sweden occur infrequently.

It's an arrangement welcomed across the board. "We prefer the right to bargain freely with worker representatives and establish labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

However Tesla has upset established practices. Outspoken chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "opposes" with the idea of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of any arrangement that establishes a kind of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed an audience in New York in 2023. "I think the unions attempt to create negativity within businesses."

Tesla entered the Scandinavian market back in the mid-2010s, and the metalworkers' union has long wanted to secure a labor contract with the company.

"Yet they wouldn't reply," states Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "And we got the impression that they tried to hide away or not discuss the matter with us."

She states the union ultimately saw no alternative except to announce a strike, beginning on 27 October, last year. "Typically the threat suffices to make a warning," comments the union leader. "The company usually signs the agreement."

But not on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, originally of Latvian origin, began employment with the automaker in 2021. He claims that wages and conditions were often dependent on the whim of managers.

He recalls a performance review where he says he was refused an annual pay rise on grounds he was "failing to meet company targets". At the same time, a colleague was reported to have been rejected for increased compensation because having the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone participated in the industrial action. The company employed some 130 technicians working when the industrial action was initiated. The union says currently around seventy of its members are participating in the action.

The automaker has long since substituted these with new workers, a situation that has no precedent since the era of the 1930s.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly and methodically," states German Bender, an analyst at Arena Idé, a policy organization supported by Swedish trade unions.

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

"They want to become convention challengers. So if somebody tells them, hey, you are violating a norm, they perceive that as a compliment."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary declined requests for interview via correspondence mentioning "record deliveries".

In fact, the company has granted only one press discussion during the entire period since the strike began.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it benefited the organization better not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to work closely with employees and give them the best possible conditions".

The executive denied that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined at Tesla headquarters in the US. "Our division possesses authorization to make independent such decisions," he stated.

The union is not entirely isolated in this conflict. The strike has received backing from several of other unions.

Port workers in nearby Denmark, Norway & neighboring states, are refusing to handle Teslas; waste is no longer removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; while recently constructed charging stations are not being connected to the grid in the country.

There is one such facility close to the capital's airport, at which twenty chargers remain unused. But a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says Tesla owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There exists an alternative power point six miles from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to continue to purchase vehicles, we can maintain our cars, we can charge our cars."

With consequences high for all parties, it's hard to see an end to the stand-off. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

"The worry is that that would spread," says Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode