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

In Sweden, around seventy car mechanics continue to confront one of the globe's richest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The labor strike targeting the American carmaker's ten Scandinavian repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, and there is little sign of a settlement.

One striking worker has remained at the Tesla picket line since October 2023.

"It's a difficult period," remarks the worker in his late thirties. With the nation's chilly winter weather sets in, it's likely to grow even tougher.

Janis spends every start of the week alongside a colleague, positioned near an electric vehicle garage on an industrial park in Malmö. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides accommodation in the form of a portable construction vehicle, as well as hot beverages and light meals.

But it remains operations continue normally nearby, at which the workshop seems to be in full swing.

This industrial action concerns an issue that reaches to the core of Swedish industrial culture – the authority for worker organizations to bargain for pay and conditions on behalf of their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has supported industrial relations across the nation for nearly one hundred years.

Today some 70% of Swedish workers belong of a trade union, while 90% are covered by a collective agreement. Strikes in Sweden occur infrequently.

This is a system welcomed by all parties. "We favor the ability to negotiate freely with worker representatives and sign collective agreements," says a business representative from the Association of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

However the electric car company has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal CEO the company leader has said he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just don't like any arrangement which creates a kind of hierarchical situation," he told an audience in New York last year. "I think labor groups attempt to create negativity in a company."

Tesla entered Sweden back in 2014, and IF Metall has long sought to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"Yet they did not reply," says the union president, the union's leader. "And we got the belief that they tried to hide away or evade discussing the matter with us."

She says the union eventually saw no alternative except to announce a strike, beginning in late October, last year. "Usually it's enough to issue the threat," comments the union leader. "The company typically agrees to the agreement."

However this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, who is of Latvian origin, began employment for Tesla several years ago. He claims that pay & conditions frequently subject to the discretion of managers.

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he states he was refused an annual pay rise because he was "failing to meet Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a coworker was reported to be turned down for increased compensation because he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, some workers went out on strike. Tesla employed approximately one hundred thirty technicians employed at the time the industrial action was called. IF Metall says currently around seventy of its members are on strike.

The automaker has long since replaced the striking workers with replacement staff, a situation that has not occurred since the 1930s.

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

"It's not against the law, this being crucial to recognize. However it goes against all traditional norms. Yet the company doesn't care about norms.

"They aim to become convention challengers. Thus when somebody tells them, listen, you are violating a standard, they see that as a compliment."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary declined requests for comment in an email citing "record deliveries".

Indeed, the automaker has given just a single media interview during the entire period after the strike started.

Earlier this year, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it benefited the organization better to avoid a collective agreement, and rather "to work closely with employees and give them the best possible terms".

Mr Stark rejected that the choice to avoid a labor contract was one made by US leadership overseas. "We have a mandate to take our own such decisions," he stated.

IF Metall is not entirely isolated in its fight. This industrial action has been supported by a number of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Denmark, Nordic countries and Finland, are refusing to handle the company's vehicles; waste is no longer collected from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; while recently constructed power points are not being linked to the grid across the nation.

There is one such facility near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where 20 chargers remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says Tesla owners are 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 service our cars, we can charge our cars."

With consequences significant on both sides, it's hard to see an end to the stand-off. The union faces the danger of establishing a pattern if it concedes the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

"The worry is that that would spread," states Mr Bender, "and ultimately {erode