🔗 Share this article

In Sweden, approximately 70 car technicians continue to confront one of the globe's richest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The industrial action targeting the US automaker's ten Swedish service centers has now reached its second anniversary, with little indication of a resolution.

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

"It has been a tough time," remarks the worker in his late thirties. With the nation's cold seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to grow even tougher.

The mechanic spends each Monday with a colleague, positioned near a Tesla service center within an industrial park located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides shelter via a portable builders' van, plus coffee and sandwiches.

However it's business as usual across the road, at which the service facility appears to operate in full swing.

The strike involves an issue that goes to the core of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to negotiate pay & conditions on behalf of their members. This principle of collective agreement has supported industrial relations across the nation for nearly a century.

Currently approximately 70% of Scandinavia's employees are members to labor organizations, and 90% fall under by a collective agreement. Strikes in Sweden are rare.

This is an arrangement supported across the board. "We prefer the right to bargain freely with the unions and sign labor contracts," states Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses business organization.

However Tesla has upset established practices. Vocal CEO Elon Musk has said he "opposes" with the concept of unions. "I just disapprove of anything which creates a sort of hierarchical situation," he informed an audience at an event last year. "I think labor groups try to create negativity within businesses."

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

"But they did not reply," states Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "We formed the belief that they attempted to hide away or not discuss the matter with us."

She states the union ultimately saw no alternative than to announce a strike, beginning on 27 October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to issue a warning," comments the union leader. "Employers usually agrees to the agreement."

However not in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He claims that pay & work terms frequently dependent on the discretion of managers.

He remembers a performance review at which he says he was denied a salary increase on grounds that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to be turned down for a pay rise due to he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, not everyone went out on strike. The company had approximately one hundred thirty technicians working at the time the industrial action was called. The union states that today around seventy of its members are on strike.

The automaker has since substituted the striking workers with replacement staff, a situation there is no precedent since the Great Depression.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and systematically," says German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a think tank supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not illegal, which is crucial to recognize. But it violates all traditional norms. But the company shows no concern about norms.

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

The automaker's local division declined requests for comment via correspondence mentioning "all-time high vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the automaker has given only one press discussion during the entire period since the industrial action started.

Earlier this year, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a business paper that it benefited the company better not to have a collective agreement, and rather "to work closely with the team and give them the best possible terms".

Mr Stark rejected that the choice not to enter a collective agreement was one made at Tesla headquarters in the US. "We have authorization to take our own such decisions," he stated.

The union is not completely isolated in this conflict. This industrial action has been supported from several of other unions.

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Norway & Finland, are refusing to process the company's vehicles; rubbish is not removed from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; and recently constructed power points remain connected to the grid in the country.

Exists an example near the capital's airport, at which twenty charging units remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the president of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's an alternative power point 10km from this location," he says. "And we can continue to buy our cars, we can maintain our vehicles, we can charge our electric cars."

With stakes significant on both sides, it's hard to envision a resolution to the deadlock. The union risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

"The concern is that this could expand," says Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode