In Sweden, approximately seventy automotive mechanics continue to confront among the globe's wealthiest corporations – Tesla. The labor strike at the US automaker's 10 Swedish service centers has now entered its second anniversary, and there is minimal indication for a resolution.
Janis Kuzma has been on the electric car company's picket line starting from the autumn of 2023.
"It has been a difficult period," remarks the 39-year-old. And as the nation's cold winter weather arrives, it is expected to become even tougher.
The mechanic spends every start of the week alongside a fellow worker, positioned outside an electric vehicle garage within an industrial park in Malmö. The labor organization, IF Metall, supplies shelter in the form of a portable builders' van, plus hot beverages and sandwiches.
However it remains operations continue normally nearby, at which the workshop appears to operate in full swing.
The strike involves an issue that reaches to the heart of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to bargain for pay & conditions on behalf of their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly a century.
Currently approximately 70% of Swedish employees are members of a trade union, while 90% are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes in Sweden are rare.
This is an arrangement welcomed by all parties. "We prefer the ability to bargain freely with worker representatives and sign collective agreements," says a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses business organization.
But the electric car company has upset the apple cart. Outspoken CEO Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of unions. "I just don't like anything which creates a kind of lords and peasants sort of thing," he informed an audience in New York last year. "I think labor groups attempt to create negativity within businesses."
The automaker came to the Scandinavian market back in the mid-2010s, and IF Metall has for years wanted to establish a labor contract with the company.
"Yet they wouldn't respond," states Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "And we got the belief that they tried to hide away or evade discussing this with our representatives."
She states the organization ultimately saw no other option except to call a strike, which started on 27 October, 2023. "Typically it's enough to make the threat," says the union leader. "Employers usually signs the contract."
But this did not happen on this occasion.
The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, started working for Tesla in 2021. He claims that wages & work terms frequently subject to the whim of supervisors.
He remembers an evaluation meeting at which he says he was denied an annual pay rise because he was "not reaching Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a colleague was said to have been rejected for increased compensation due to having the "wrong attitude".
However, not everyone participated in the industrial action. The company had approximately one hundred thirty technicians employed at the time the industrial action was called. The union says currently around 70 of their represented workers are participating in the action.
The automaker has since replaced these with new workers, a situation that has no precedent since the era of the Great Depression.
"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] openly & systematically," states a labor researcher, a researcher at Arena Idé, a think tank financed by Swedish trade unions.
"It is not against the law, which is crucial to understand. But it violates all established norms. Yet the company shows no concern about norms.
"They aim to become convention challengers. So if somebody tells them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as a compliment."
The company's Swedish subsidiary refused attempts for comment in an email citing "all-time high deliveries".
In fact, the automaker has given just a single press discussion during the entire period after the strike started.
In March 2024, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a financial publication that it suited the company more not to have a union contract, and rather "to collaborate directly with the team and provide them optimal conditions".
Mr Stark rejected that the choice not to enter a collective agreement was one made at Tesla headquarters in the US. "Our division possesses a mandate to make independent such choices," he stated.
IF Metall is not completely alone in this conflict. The strike has received backing from several of other unions.
Port workers in nearby Denmark, Nordic countries & Finland, are refusing to handle Teslas; waste is not collected from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; and newly built charging stations remain linked to power networks in the country.
There is an example close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where 20 charging units remain unused. However Tibor Blomhäll, the president of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, states vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.
"There's an alternative power point 10km from this location," he comments. "And we can continue to purchase vehicles, we can maintain our vehicles, we can power our cars."
With consequences high on both sides, it is difficult to see an end to the deadlock. IF Metall faces the danger of setting a precedent should it surrender the principle of negotiated labor contracts.
"The concern is how this could expand," states Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode
Tech enthusiast and writer with a passion for exploring emerging technologies and their impact on society.
