Swedish Car Technicians Participate in Prolonged Industrial Action With Automotive Giant Tesla

Across Sweden, around 70 automotive technicians continue to confront among the globe's richest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action targeting the American carmaker's ten Swedish repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, and there is little indication for a resolution.

Janis Kuzma has been on the electric car company's protest line since October 2023.

"It has been a tough period," remarks the 39-year-old. With Sweden's chilly winter weather sets in, it's likely to grow more challenging.

The mechanic spends every start of the week with a fellow worker, standing near an electric vehicle garage within an industrial park in Malmö. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies accommodation via a portable construction vehicle, plus hot beverages and sandwiches.

But it's business as usual nearby, at which the workshop appears to be at full capacity.

This industrial action concerns a matter that goes to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the right of trade unions to negotiate wages & conditions representing their members. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned industrial relations in Sweden for nearly one hundred years.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's employees belong of a trade union, and ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes in Sweden are rare.

It's a system welcomed by all parties. "We favor the ability to negotiate directly with the unions and sign labor contracts," states Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

But Tesla has upset the apple cart. Outspoken CEO the company leader has stated he "opposes" with the concept of unions. "I just disapprove of anything which creates a sort of lords and peasants sort of thing," he informed listeners in New York in 2023. "In my view the unions attempt to generate negativity in a company."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market starting in the mid-2010s, while IF Metall has for years sought to establish a labor contract with the company.

"Yet they did not reply," states Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "We formed the belief that they attempted to hide away or evade discussing the matter with our representatives."

She says the organization ultimately saw no alternative except to announce a strike, beginning in late October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to issue the threat," comments the union leader. "Employers typically agrees to the agreement."

But not in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is of Latvian origin, started working with the automaker several years ago. He claims that pay and work terms were often subject to the whim of supervisors.

He recalls a performance review where he states he was refused a salary increase because that he "not reaching company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was said to be turned down for a pay rise due to having an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, some workers went out in the industrial action. Tesla had approximately one hundred thirty technicians working at the time the industrial action was called. The union states currently approximately seventy of its members are participating in the action.

Tesla has long since substituted the striking workers with new workers, a situation there is no precedent since the era of the 1930s.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] publicly & systematically," states German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not against the law, which is crucial to understand. But it violates all established practices. Yet the company shows no concern for conventions.

"They want to become convention challengers. Thus when somebody informs them, listen, you are violating a norm, they see this as a compliment."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary declined requests for comment via correspondence mentioning "record deliveries".

In fact, the company has granted only one media interview during the entire period since the industrial action started.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a business paper that it benefited the organization better to avoid a collective agreement, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and give them optimal terms".

Mr Stark rejected that the choice to avoid a collective agreement was one made by US leadership overseas. "We have a mandate to make our own such choices," he said.

The union is not completely alone in its fight. This industrial action has been supported by a number of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Denmark, Norway and neighboring states, are refusing to process the company's vehicles; waste is no longer collected from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; while newly built charging stations remain connected to the grid in the country.

Exists an example close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where twenty chargers stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There's another charging station six miles from this location," he says. "And we can still purchase vehicles, we can service our cars, we can charge our cars."

With stakes significant for all parties, it's hard to see an end to the stand-off. The union faces the danger of setting a precedent should it surrender the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

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