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Scandinavian Auto Technicians Participate in Prolonged Industrial Action With Automotive Giant Tesla
In Sweden, approximately seventy automotive technicians persist to confront one of the globe's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The labor strike targeting the American carmaker's 10 Scandinavian service centers has now entered its second anniversary, with little sign for a settlement.
One striking worker has remained on the Tesla protest line starting from the autumn of 2023.
"It has been a difficult period," states the 39-year-old. With Sweden's chilly seasonal conditions sets in, it is expected to grow more challenging.
The mechanic spends every start of the week with a fellow worker, standing outside a Tesla garage on a business district located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, IF Metall, provides shelter in the form of a portable construction vehicle, plus hot beverages and light meals.
However it's operations continue normally across the road, at which the workshop seems to operate at full capacity.
This industrial action involves a matter that reaches to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to bargain for wages and working terms representing their members. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has supported industrial relations across the nation for almost a century.
Today approximately 70% of Scandinavia's workers are members of a trade union, and ninety percent fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.
This is a system welcomed by all parties. "We prefer the ability to bargain freely with the unions and sign collective agreements," says a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses business organization.
But the electric car company has upset established practices. Vocal CEO Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I simply disapprove of anything which creates a kind of lords and peasants sort of thing," he told an audience at an event last year. "I think labor groups attempt to generate negativity within businesses."
Tesla entered the Scandinavian market back in 2014, while the metalworkers' union has long wanted to establish a labor contract with the automaker.
"But they wouldn't reply," says Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "And we got the impression that they attempted to avoid or evade discussing the matter with our representatives."
She states the union ultimately saw no other option except to call industrial action, which started in late October, 2023. "Usually it's enough to issue the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "Employers typically agrees to the contract."
But this did not happen on this occasion.
Janis Kuzma, originally from Latvia, began employment with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that wages & work terms frequently subject to the discretion of managers.
He recalls an evaluation meeting where he says he was denied a salary increase because that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to be rejected for increased compensation because he had an "inappropriate demeanor".
Nevertheless, some workers participated on strike. The company employed some 130 mechanics employed when the strike was called. The union says currently around seventy of its members are on strike.
The automaker has long since replaced these with new workers, a situation that has no precedent since the era of the Great Depression.
"The company has done it [found replacement staff] openly & methodically," states German Bender, an analyst at a research institute, a think tank financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.
"It's not illegal, this being crucial to understand. However it violates all traditional practices. But Tesla shows no concern for conventions.
"They aim to become convention challengers. Thus when somebody informs them, listen, you are violating a standard, they see that as a compliment."
The company's local division declined attempts for comment in an email mentioning "record vehicle shipments".
In fact, the company has given only one press discussion during the entire period since the industrial action started.
Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it suited the organization more not to have a collective agreement, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and give them the best possible terms".
Mr Stark rejected that the choice not to enter a collective agreement was determined by US leadership overseas. "Our division possesses authorization to make our own such decisions," he stated.
The union is not completely isolated in this conflict. This industrial action has received backing by a number of other unions.
Port workers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries and neighboring states, decline to handle the company's vehicles; waste is not collected from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; while newly built power points are not being linked to power networks in the country.
There is one such facility close to the capital's airport, where twenty charging units stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says Tesla owners remain unaffected by the strike.
"There's another charging station 10km from this location," he says. "And we can continue to buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can power our electric cars."
With stakes high for all parties, it is difficult to envision an end to the stand-off. The union risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.
"The worry is how this could expand," states the researcher, "and eventually {erode
Brian Hernandez
A passionate writer and shopping enthusiast with a keen eye for quality products and lifestyle trends.
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