🔗 Share this article

In Sweden, approximately seventy car technicians persist to challenge one of the globe's richest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The labor strike at the US automaker's ten Swedish repair facilities has now entered two years of duration, and there is minimal indication for a resolution.

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

"It has been a tough period," remarks the worker in his late thirties. With the nation's chilly seasonal conditions sets in, it is expected to become even tougher.

Janis spends each Monday alongside a fellow worker, standing outside an electric vehicle service center on an industrial park in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, provides accommodation via a mobile builders' van, as well as hot beverages & sandwiches.

But it remains business as usual nearby, where 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 of trade unions to bargain for wages & working terms on behalf of their workforce. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has supported industrial relations across the nation for nearly a century.

Currently some seventy percent of Swedish workers are members to labor organizations, and ninety percent fall under by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages in Sweden occur infrequently.

It's an arrangement supported by all parties. "We prefer the ability to bargain freely with the unions and establish labor contracts," says a business representative from the Association of Swedish Enterprise 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 that establishes a kind of lords and peasants sort of thing," he informed listeners in New York in 2023. "I think labor groups attempt to generate conflict within businesses."

The automaker came to Sweden back in 2014, while the metalworkers' union has long sought to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"But they did not reply," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's leader. "We formed the belief that they attempted to avoid or not discuss the matter with us."

She states the union eventually found no alternative except to call a strike, which started on 27 October, last year. "Usually it's enough to issue the threat," says the union leader. "Employers typically signs the contract."

However this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that wages & conditions frequently dependent on the whim of managers.

He recalls a performance review at which he states he was denied a salary increase on grounds that he "not reaching company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to be rejected for a pay rise because having the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone participated on strike. The company employed approximately one hundred thirty mechanics working when the strike was initiated. The union says currently around 70 of its members are on strike.

Tesla has long since substituted these with replacement staff, for which there is no precedent since the era of the 1930s.

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] openly & methodically," says a labor researcher, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not illegal, this being crucial to recognize. However it violates all established norms. But the company doesn't care about norms.

"They aim to be norm breakers. Thus when anyone tells them, hey, you are violating a standard, they see this as a compliment."

The automaker's local division refused requests for interview via correspondence mentioning "all-time high deliveries".

In fact, the company has granted just a single media interview during the entire period since the industrial action started.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a business paper that it benefited the company better not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to work closely with employees and provide workers the best possible terms".

Mr Stark rejected that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined by US leadership overseas. "Our division possesses authorization to take independent such choices," he stated.

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

Port workers in neighbouring Denmark, Nordic countries and neighboring states, decline to handle the company's vehicles; rubbish is not collected from Tesla's Swedish facilities; and recently constructed charging stations are not being linked to power networks in the country.

There is one such facility close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which 20 chargers remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says Tesla owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"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 power our cars."

With consequences high on both sides, it's hard to envision a resolution to the deadlock. The union faces the danger of setting a precedent should it surrender the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

"The worry is that this could expand," states the researcher, "and ultimately {erode