Swedish Auto Technicians Participate in Extended Industrial Action Against Automotive Giant Tesla

In Sweden, approximately seventy car technicians persist to confront among the world's wealthiest companies – Tesla. The labor strike at the American carmaker's 10 Swedish repair facilities has now entered two years of duration, and there is little indication of a resolution.

Janis Kuzma has been on the Tesla picket line starting from October 2023.

"It has been a tough period," states the worker in his late thirties. And as Sweden's cold winter weather sets in, it's likely to become more challenging.

Janis devotes every start of the week with a fellow worker, positioned outside an electric vehicle service center within an industrial park in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, provides accommodation via a portable construction vehicle, as well as hot beverages & light meals.

However it's operations continue normally across the road, where the workshop seems to be in full swing.

The strike involves an issue that reaches to the heart of Swedish industrial culture – the right for worker organizations to bargain for pay and working terms on behalf of their members. This concept of collective agreement has underpinned industrial relations in Sweden for nearly a century.

Today approximately seventy percent of Swedish employees belong of a trade union, and ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages across the nation are rare.

This is a system supported by all parties. "We prefer the right to bargain directly with the unions and establish labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

But Tesla has upset the apple cart. Vocal chief executive the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just disapprove of any arrangement which creates a sort of hierarchical sort of thing," he told listeners in New York last year. "I think the unions try to create conflict within businesses."

Tesla came to the Scandinavian market back in the mid-2010s, and the metalworkers' union has long sought to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"But they did not reply," states Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "We formed the impression that they tried to hide away or evade discussing this with our representatives."

She says the union ultimately found no other option than to announce industrial action, which started on 27 October, last year. "Typically it's enough to make a warning," comments Ms Nilsson. "Employers usually signs the contract."

However not in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is from Latvia, started working for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that wages & conditions frequently dependent on the whim of managers.

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he states he was refused a salary increase because he was "failing to meet company targets". At the same time, a coworker was reported to have been turned down for increased compensation due to he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, not everyone participated in the industrial action. The company had some one hundred thirty mechanics employed when the strike was called. The union states that today around 70 of their represented workers are on strike.

The automaker has since replaced these with new workers, for which that has no precedent since the era of the Great Depression.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly and systematically," states a labor researcher, a researcher at Arena Idé, a policy organization financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not against the law, which is crucial to recognize. But it violates all established norms. Yet Tesla doesn't care for conventions.

"They aim to be norm breakers. So if somebody informs them, hey, you are violating a norm, they perceive this as praise."

The company's local division refused requests for comment in an email mentioning "record vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the automaker has granted just a single media interview in the two years since the industrial action began.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it benefited the company more not to have a collective agreement, and rather "to collaborate directly with the team and provide them optimal conditions".

Mr Stark denied that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was one made by US leadership in the US. "Our division possesses authorization to make independent such decisions," he stated.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in its fight. The strike has received backing by a number of other unions.

Port workers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries and Finland, are refusing to process Teslas; waste is not collected from Tesla's Swedish facilities; while recently constructed power points remain connected to the grid in the country.

Exists one such facility close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where 20 chargers remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says Tesla owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There's another charging station 10km from here," he says. "Plus we are able to still buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can power our electric cars."

With stakes significant for all parties, it's hard to envision an end to the stand-off. The union faces the danger of setting a precedent should it surrender the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

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