Swedish Auto Technicians Engage in Prolonged Labor Dispute With Carmaker Tesla

In Sweden, approximately 70 automotive technicians continue to confront one of the world's wealthiest corporations – Tesla. The labor strike targeting the American carmaker's 10 Swedish repair facilities has currently entered two years of duration, with minimal sign of a resolution.

One striking worker has remained at the Tesla picket line starting from the autumn of 2023.

"It's a tough time," states the 39-year-old. And as the nation's chilly winter weather sets in, it's likely to grow even tougher.

The mechanic spends every start of the week with a fellow worker, positioned outside a Tesla service center within an industrial park in Malmö. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies accommodation via a portable construction vehicle, plus hot beverages and sandwiches.

However it remains business as usual nearby, at which the workshop appears to operate at full capacity.

This industrial action concerns a matter that goes to the heart of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the authority of trade unions to bargain for pay and conditions on behalf of their members. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned industrial relations across the nation for almost a century.

Currently some 70% of Swedish employees belong to labor organizations, and 90% are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

This is an arrangement welcomed across the board. "We prefer the right to negotiate directly with worker representatives and sign labor contracts," states Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses business organization.

However Tesla has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal chief executive the company leader has stated he "opposes" with the idea of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of anything that establishes a sort of lords and peasants sort of thing," he informed an audience in New York last year. "In my view labor groups attempt to generate negativity in a company."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market starting in 2014, while the metalworkers' union has long sought to secure a labor contract with the company.

"But they wouldn't reply," says Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "We formed the belief that they tried to avoid or not discuss the matter with us."

She states the union ultimately found no alternative than to announce a strike, which started in late October, 2023. "Typically the threat suffices to issue a warning," says the union leader. "Employers usually agrees to the agreement."

However this did not happen in this case.

Janis Kuzma, originally of Latvian origin, began employment with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that wages and work terms frequently subject to the discretion of managers.

He remembers a performance review where he states he was refused an annual pay rise on grounds that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a colleague was said to have been rejected for increased compensation due to he had the "wrong attitude".

However, some workers participated on strike. Tesla had approximately one hundred thirty mechanics employed at the time the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall states that today approximately seventy of their represented workers are on strike.

Tesla has since substituted the striking workers with replacement staff, a situation that has not occurred since the Great Depression.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and systematically," says a labor researcher, a researcher at Arena Idé, a think tank supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not against the law, which is crucial to recognize. But it goes against all established practices. But the company shows no concern about norms.

"They aim to become norm breakers. Thus when somebody tells them, hey, you are breaking a norm, they perceive that as praise."

The automaker's local division declined requests for interview in an email mentioning "all-time high deliveries".

Indeed, the company has given just a single media interview in the two years after the strike began.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, the executive, told a financial publication that it benefited the company better not to have a union contract, and rather "to collaborate directly with the team and provide them the best possible terms".

Mr Stark denied that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined by US leadership overseas. "Our division possesses a mandate to make our own such decisions," he said.

The union is not completely alone in this conflict. The strike has been supported from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Denmark, Norway & neighboring states, decline to process Teslas; rubbish is no longer removed from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; and newly built charging stations are not being linked to the grid in the country.

Exists one such facility near the capital's airport, where 20 chargers stand idle. However Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says Tesla owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There exists an alternative power point 10km from here," he comments. "And we can continue to buy our cars, we can maintain our cars, we can charge our electric cars."

With consequences significant on both sides, it is difficult to envision an end to the deadlock. The union faces the danger of setting a precedent should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

"The worry is that that would spread," says the researcher, "and ultimately {erode