Swedish Car Mechanics Participate in Extended Labor Dispute Against Automotive Giant Tesla

In Sweden, approximately seventy automotive technicians continue to challenge among the globe's wealthiest companies – Tesla. This labor strike targeting the US automaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has now reached two years of duration, and there is minimal sign for a settlement.

One striking worker has been at the electric car company's picket line since October 2023.

"It has been a tough period," states the 39-year-old. With the nation's chilly winter weather arrives, it's likely to grow even tougher.

The mechanic spends every start of the week with a colleague, standing outside an electric vehicle service center on a business district in Malmö. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides shelter in the form of a mobile builders' van, as well as coffee & sandwiches.

However it's operations continue normally nearby, at which the service facility appears to operate at full capacity.

This industrial action involves a matter that reaches to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to bargain for pay & working terms representing their workforce. This concept of collective agreement has supported labor dynamics across the nation for almost one hundred years.

Currently approximately 70% of Swedish workers belong of a trade union, while 90% fall under by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation are rare.

This is a system supported across the board. "We prefer the ability to negotiate freely with worker representatives and establish collective agreements," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

But the electric car company has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal CEO Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just don't like anything that establishes a sort of hierarchical situation," he told an audience at an event last year. "I think labor groups attempt to create negativity in a company."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market starting in 2014, while the metalworkers' union has long wanted to secure a collective agreement with the company.

"Yet they did not respond," states Marie Nilsson, the union's president. "And we got the impression that they attempted to avoid or not discuss this with us."

She says the organization eventually saw no other option except to announce a strike, which started on 27 October, last year. "Typically it's enough to issue the threat," says the union leader. "The company typically signs the contract."

But this did not happen in this case.

Janis Kuzma, originally from Latvia, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that wages and work terms were often subject to the discretion of supervisors.

He remembers a performance review where he says he was refused a salary increase on grounds that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was said to be rejected for increased compensation because he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, some workers participated on strike. Tesla had approximately 130 mechanics employed at the time the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall says that today around 70 of their represented workers are participating in the action.

The automaker has since substituted the striking workers with replacement staff, a situation that has not occurred since the era of the 1930s.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] openly & systematically," states a labor researcher, a researcher at Arena Idé, a think tank financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not against the law, this being crucial to recognize. But it goes against all traditional practices. Yet the company shows no concern about norms.

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

The company's Swedish subsidiary refused attempts for comment in an email citing "record deliveries".

Indeed, the company has granted just a single media interview during the entire period after the industrial action began.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, the executive, informed a financial publication that it benefited the organization better not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and give workers the best possible conditions".

Mr Stark rejected that the choice not to enter a collective agreement was one made at Tesla headquarters in the US. "Our division possesses a mandate to make our own such decisions," he said.

The union is not entirely alone in this conflict. The strike has received backing from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Denmark, Nordic countries and Finland, are refusing to process the company's vehicles; rubbish is not removed from the automaker's Swedish facilities; while recently constructed power points remain linked to power networks in the country.

Exists one such facility near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which twenty chargers stand idle. However a Tesla enthusiast, the president of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, states vehicle owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists another charging station 10km from here," he says. "And we can continue to buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can charge our cars."

With consequences significant on both sides, it is difficult to envision an end to the stand-off. IF Metall faces the danger of setting a precedent if it concedes the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

"The concern is how that would spread," states the researcher, "and ultimately {erode