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Swedish Car Technicians Participate in Prolonged Labor Dispute With Carmaker Tesla
In Sweden, around seventy automotive technicians continue to challenge one of the world's richest corporations – Tesla. This industrial action targeting the US automaker's ten Swedish repair facilities has currently reached its second anniversary, and there is minimal sign for a settlement.
One striking worker has remained on the electric car company's picket line since October 2023.
"It has been a tough period," remarks the 39-year-old. And as Sweden's cold seasonal conditions sets in, it is expected to grow more challenging.
The mechanic devotes each Monday alongside a colleague, standing near a Tesla service center within an industrial park in Malmö. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies shelter via a mobile construction vehicle, plus coffee & sandwiches.
However it remains operations continue normally nearby, where the service facility appears to be in full swing.
The strike concerns a matter that goes to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the right of trade unions to negotiate wages & working terms representing their workforce. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned labor dynamics across the nation for almost a century.
Today some seventy percent of Swedish employees are members of a trade union, and ninety percent fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages in Sweden occur infrequently.
It's a system welcomed across the board. "We prefer the right to bargain freely with the unions and sign collective agreements," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Enterprise business organization.
However Tesla has upset the apple cart. Outspoken CEO the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just disapprove of any arrangement that establishes a sort of hierarchical sort of thing," he told listeners at an event in 2023. "In my view the unions try to generate negativity in a company."
The automaker entered Sweden back in the mid-2010s, and IF Metall has for years wanted to secure a labor contract with the company.
"Yet they wouldn't respond," says Marie Nilsson, the union's president. "We formed the belief that they attempted to hide away or not discuss this with our representatives."
She says the organization ultimately saw no other option except to announce industrial action, which started on 27 October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to make the threat," comments the union leader. "Employers typically agrees to the contract."
But this did not happen on this occasion.
Janis Kuzma, originally of Latvian origin, started working with the automaker in 2021. He claims that pay & work terms were often subject to the whim of supervisors.
He recalls an evaluation meeting where he says he was denied an annual pay rise on grounds that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to be rejected for increased compensation due to having an "inappropriate demeanor".
However, some workers went out in the industrial action. The company had some 130 mechanics working when the strike was called. IF Metall says that today approximately seventy of its members are participating in the action.
Tesla has since replaced the striking workers with replacement staff, a situation that has not occurred since the 1930s.
"The company has done it [found replacement staff] publicly & systematically," says a labor researcher, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization financed by Swedish trade unions.
"It's not illegal, this being important to recognize. But it violates all established practices. But Tesla doesn't care about norms.
"They want to become convention challengers. Thus when anyone tells them, hey, you are breaking a norm, they perceive this as praise."
The automaker's local division refused attempts for interview in an email citing "all-time high vehicle shipments".
In fact, the automaker has granted just a single media interview during the entire period after the industrial action started.
In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, Jens Stark, told a business paper that it benefited the organization better not to have a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with the team and provide them optimal terms".
Mr Stark rejected that the decision not to enter a collective agreement was determined at Tesla headquarters in the US. "We have authorization to make independent such choices," he said.
IF Metall is not entirely alone in this conflict. The strike has been supported from several of other unions.
Port workers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & neighboring states, are refusing to handle Teslas; rubbish is no longer collected from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; while newly built charging stations remain linked to power networks across the nation.
Exists one such facility close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which 20 charging units remain unused. But a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, states vehicle owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.
"There exists another charging station six miles from this location," he comments. "Plus we are able to still purchase vehicles, we can service our cars, we can power our electric cars."
With stakes significant on both sides, it's hard to envision an end 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," says the researcher, "and eventually {erode
Margaret Houston
A dedicated writer and theologian passionate about sharing faith-based insights and fostering community connections.
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