Scandinavian Auto Mechanics Engage in Extended Labor Dispute With Carmaker Tesla

Across Sweden, around seventy automotive mechanics continue to challenge among the world's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action at the US automaker's ten Swedish repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, with minimal indication for a settlement.

One striking worker has been at the electric car company's picket line starting from October 2023.

"It has been a tough time," remarks the worker in his late thirties. With Sweden's cold seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to grow more challenging.

Janis spends every start of the week with a colleague, positioned near an electric vehicle garage on a business district in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, supplies accommodation via a mobile builders' van, as well as coffee and sandwiches.

However it's operations continue normally nearby, at which the workshop appears to operate in full swing.

The strike concerns a matter that goes to the core of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the right of trade unions to negotiate pay and conditions on behalf of their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has supported industrial relations in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's workers are members to labor organizations, and 90% fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages in Sweden occur infrequently.

It's a system supported across the board. "We favor the ability to bargain freely with worker representatives and establish collective agreements," says a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses employer group.

However Tesla has disrupted established practices. Vocal chief executive the company leader has said he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just disapprove of any arrangement that establishes a kind of lords and peasants sort of thing," he told an audience at an event in 2023. "I think the unions attempt to generate conflict within businesses."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market back in the mid-2010s, while IF Metall has long wanted to establish a labor contract with the company.

"Yet they did not respond," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's leader. "And we got the belief that they attempted to avoid or evade discussing this with our representatives."

She states the union ultimately found no other option than to announce industrial action, which started in late October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to issue a warning," says Ms Nilsson. "The company typically agrees to the contract."

But this did not happen on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, originally of Latvian origin, started working with the automaker several years ago. He claims that wages & conditions frequently subject to the whim of managers.

He remembers a performance review at which he states he was refused a salary increase because he was "failing to meet company targets". At the same time, a colleague was reported to be rejected for a pay rise because having an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, some workers participated in the industrial action. Tesla employed approximately one hundred thirty technicians working when the strike was called. IF Metall states currently approximately 70 of its members are participating in the action.

The automaker has since substituted these with new workers, for which there is no precedent since the Great Depression.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and systematically," says German Bender, an analyst at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not illegal, which is important to recognize. However it goes against all established norms. But the company doesn't care about norms.

"They want to be norm breakers. So if somebody informs them, hey, you are violating a standard, they see that as praise."

The company's local division refused attempts for interview via correspondence citing "all-time high deliveries".

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

In March 2024, the local division's "national manager, Jens Stark, informed a business paper that it suited the company more to avoid a collective agreement, and rather "to work closely with employees and provide them the best possible conditions".

The executive denied that the choice not to enter a labor contract was determined by US leadership in the US. "We have a mandate to take our own such decisions," he said.

IF Metall is not entirely alone in its fight. The strike has been supported from several of other unions.

Dockworkers in nearby Denmark, Norway & Finland, are refusing to handle Teslas; waste is not collected from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; while recently constructed power points remain connected to power networks in the country.

There is an example close to the capital's airport, where 20 chargers stand idle. But Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, states Tesla owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists another charging station six miles from this location," he comments. "And we can continue to purchase vehicles, we can service our cars, we can power our electric cars."

With stakes high on both sides, it's hard to envision a resolution to the stand-off. IF Metall faces the danger of setting a precedent should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

"The concern is that that would spread," states Mr Bender, "and ultimately {erode