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In Sweden, approximately 70 car technicians persist to confront one of the globe's richest companies – Tesla. This labor strike at the US carmaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has currently entered two years of duration, with little indication of a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has been on the Tesla protest line since October 2023.

"It has been a difficult time," remarks the 39-year-old. With the nation's chilly seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to grow even tougher.

Janis spends each Monday with a colleague, standing outside an electric vehicle service center on a business district located in southern Sweden. His union, IF Metall, supplies accommodation in the form of a mobile builders' van, plus coffee and sandwiches.

But it remains business as usual nearby, where the workshop seems to be in full swing.

The strike involves an issue that goes to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to negotiate wages and working terms on behalf of their workforce. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for almost a century.

Today approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's employees belong of a trade union, while 90% fall under by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

This is an arrangement welcomed by all parties. "We favor the right to negotiate freely with the unions and establish collective agreements," says a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

But Tesla has upset the apple cart. Outspoken CEO Elon Musk has said he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I just don't like anything which creates a kind of hierarchical situation," he informed an audience at an event in 2023. "In my view labor groups attempt to create conflict within businesses."

Tesla entered the Scandinavian market starting in the mid-2010s, and the metalworkers' union has for years wanted to establish a labor contract with the company.

"But they wouldn't reply," says the union president, the organization's leader. "We formed the belief that they attempted to hide away or evade discussing this with us."

She states the union ultimately saw no alternative than to announce industrial action, beginning in late October, 2023. "Typically the threat suffices to issue the threat," comments the union leader. "The company usually signs the agreement."

But this did not happen on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, who is of Latvian origin, began employment with the automaker in 2021. He asserts that pay & conditions frequently subject to the discretion of managers.

He remembers a performance review where he states he was denied an annual pay rise on grounds that he "failing to meet Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a colleague was said to be rejected for a pay rise because having an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, not everyone went out on strike. The company had approximately one hundred thirty mechanics working at the time the strike was called. The union states that today approximately 70 of its members are on strike.

Tesla has long since substituted the striking workers with replacement staff, for which that has not occurred since the Great Depression.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly and systematically," states German Bender, a researcher at Arena Idé, a policy organization supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not illegal, which is important to recognize. But it violates all established norms. But Tesla shows no concern for conventions.

"They want to be norm breakers. So if anyone informs them, hey, you are violating a standard, they see this as praise."

The company's local division declined attempts for comment via correspondence mentioning "record deliveries".

In fact, the automaker has granted only one media interview in the two years after the industrial action began.

Earlier this year, the local division's "national manager, Jens Stark, informed a business paper that it benefited the organization more not to have a union contract, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and give them optimal terms".

The executive denied that the decision not to enter a labor contract was one made by US leadership in the US. "Our division possesses a mandate to take independent such choices," he said.

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

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries and neighboring states, decline to process the company's vehicles; waste is no longer collected from Tesla's Swedish facilities; while newly built charging stations remain connected to the grid in the country.

There is one such facility near the capital's airport, at which 20 charging units remain unused. However a Tesla enthusiast, the president of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There exists another charging station six miles from this location," he says. "And we can still purchase vehicles, we can maintain our cars, we can charge our cars."

With stakes significant for all parties, it's hard to see an end to the stand-off. IF Metall faces the danger of establishing a pattern if it concedes the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

"The worry is that this could expand," states the researcher, "and ultimately {erode