Swedish Car Technicians Engage in Prolonged Industrial Action Against Carmaker Tesla

Across Sweden, approximately seventy car technicians continue to confront among the world's richest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action targeting the US automaker's 10 Swedish repair facilities has currently entered its second anniversary, with minimal sign for a resolution.

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

"It has been a difficult time," states the worker in his late thirties. With Sweden's cold winter weather sets in, it is expected to become more challenging.

The mechanic devotes each Monday alongside a fellow worker, positioned outside an electric vehicle service center on an industrial park located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, IF Metall, supplies shelter in the form of a mobile construction vehicle, plus hot beverages and sandwiches.

However it remains business as usual nearby, where the service facility seems to operate in full swing.

The strike involves a matter that reaches to the core of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the right for worker organizations to bargain for wages & working terms representing their members. This concept of collective agreement has supported labor dynamics across the nation for nearly one hundred years.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's workers belong to labor organizations, and ninety percent fall under by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

It's an arrangement welcomed by all parties. "We favor the right to bargain freely with the unions and establish collective agreements," states a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses employer group.

But the electric car company has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal chief executive the company leader has stated he "opposes" with the idea of labor organizations. "I just disapprove of anything which creates a kind of hierarchical situation," he informed an audience at an event last year. "I think labor groups try to generate negativity in a company."

The automaker came to Sweden back in the mid-2010s, and IF Metall has for years sought to secure a collective agreement with the company.

"But they did not respond," says Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "And we got the impression that they attempted to hide away or evade discussing this with our representatives."

She says the union eventually found no alternative than to call a strike, beginning on 27 October, last year. "Usually it's enough to make a warning," says Ms Nilsson. "Employers usually signs the agreement."

However not in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is from Latvia, began employment with the automaker several years ago. He claims that pay and work terms frequently subject to the whim of supervisors.

He remembers an evaluation meeting at which he says he was refused an annual pay rise on grounds he was "not reaching company targets". At the same time, a coworker was reported to be turned down for increased compensation because having an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, not everyone participated on strike. Tesla employed approximately 130 technicians working when the strike was initiated. The union states currently approximately seventy of its members are on strike.

The automaker has since replaced these with new workers, for which that has no precedent since the 1930s.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] publicly & systematically," states German Bender, an analyst at a research institute, a think tank supported by Swedish trade unions.

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

"They aim to be norm breakers. So if anyone tells them, hey, you are violating a norm, they perceive that as a compliment."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary declined attempts for interview in an email mentioning "all-time high vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the company has given just a single press discussion during the entire period after the industrial action started.

Earlier this year, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it suited the company better to avoid a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and provide workers optimal conditions".

The executive denied that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was one made at Tesla headquarters in the US. "We have a mandate to make our own such decisions," he stated.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in this conflict. The strike has been supported from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & Finland, decline to handle the company's vehicles; rubbish is no longer collected from the automaker's Swedish facilities; and recently constructed power points remain connected to the grid in the country.

Exists one such facility near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which 20 charging units remain unused. However a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says Tesla owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There's an alternative power point 10km from this location," he comments. "And we can still buy our cars, we can service our vehicles, we can charge our cars."

With consequences high for all parties, it is difficult to see a resolution to the stand-off. The union faces the danger of establishing a pattern if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

"The concern is that this could expand," states Mr Bender, "and ultimately {erode