Scandinavian Auto Mechanics Engage in Prolonged Industrial Action Against Automotive Giant Tesla

In Sweden, around seventy automotive technicians continue to challenge one of the world's richest corporations – Tesla. The industrial action at the American carmaker's ten Swedish service centers has now entered two years of duration, with little indication of a resolution.

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

"It has been a difficult time," states the 39-year-old. With Sweden's cold winter weather sets in, it is expected to become more challenging.

Janis spends every start of the week alongside a colleague, positioned outside an electric vehicle garage within an industrial park in Malmö. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides shelter in the form of a mobile builders' van, plus hot beverages and light meals.

But it remains operations continue normally across the road, where the service facility appears to operate at full capacity.

This industrial action concerns a matter that goes to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the authority for worker organizations to bargain for pay & working terms on behalf of their workforce. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Today approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's workers are members to labor organizations, while 90% are covered by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages in Sweden are rare.

This is a system supported by all parties. "We prefer the right to bargain directly with worker representatives and establish collective agreements," says a business representative from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

However the electric car company has disrupted established practices. Vocal chief executive the company leader has said he "opposes" with the idea of unions. "I simply don't like anything that establishes a kind of lords and peasants sort of thing," he told listeners at an event last year. "In my view labor groups attempt to generate conflict in a company."

The automaker came to the Scandinavian market starting in 2014, and IF Metall has for years wanted to establish a collective agreement with the automaker.

"Yet they did not respond," states Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "And we got the impression that they tried to hide away or evade discussing the matter with our representatives."

She states the organization ultimately saw no other option than to announce industrial action, which started in late October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to make a warning," comments the union leader. "The company typically agrees to the contract."

However not in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, started working for Tesla several years ago. He claims that pay & work terms frequently subject to the discretion of managers.

He remembers an evaluation meeting where he states he was denied an annual pay rise because that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a colleague was reported to have been rejected for increased compensation due to he had the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone went out in the industrial action. The company had some one hundred thirty technicians working at the time the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall states currently around seventy of its members are participating in the action.

Tesla has long since replaced these with new workers, a situation there is no precedent since the Great Depression.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] publicly 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 violates all traditional norms. But the company doesn't care for conventions.

"They aim to be norm breakers. So if somebody tells them, hey, you are violating a standard, they see this as a compliment."

The company's local division refused requests for comment via correspondence mentioning "record deliveries".

Indeed, the company has given only one media interview during the entire period since the strike started.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", the executive, told a financial publication that it benefited the company more to avoid a collective agreement, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and provide them the best possible conditions".

Mr Stark rejected that the choice not to enter a labor contract was one made at Tesla headquarters in the US. "We have authorization to make our own such decisions," he said.

IF Metall is not completely alone in this conflict. The strike has received backing by a number of labor organizations.

Port workers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & Finland, decline to handle Teslas; rubbish is no longer removed from the automaker's Swedish facilities; and recently constructed power points remain linked to power networks in the country.

There is an example close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where twenty charging units stand idle. But Tibor Blomhäll, the president of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

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

With stakes high on both sides, it's hard to envision an end to the deadlock. The union risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

"The concern is that this could expand," says the researcher, "and eventually {erode