Scandinavian Car Technicians Engage in Extended Industrial Action With Carmaker Tesla

In Sweden, around seventy automotive technicians persist to challenge one of the globe's wealthiest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The labor strike at the US automaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has now entered its second anniversary, with minimal indication of a resolution.

One striking worker has been at the electric car company's protest line since the autumn of 2023.

"It's a difficult period," remarks the 39-year-old. With Sweden's chilly seasonal conditions arrives, it's likely to grow even tougher.

The mechanic spends every start of the week with a colleague, standing near an electric vehicle garage on a business district in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, provides accommodation in the form of a portable construction vehicle, plus coffee and sandwiches.

However it's business as usual nearby, at which the workshop appears to operate in full swing.

The strike concerns an issue that reaches to the core of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the authority for worker organizations to negotiate pay & conditions on behalf of their members. This principle of collective agreement has supported industrial relations in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Currently approximately 70% of Scandinavia's workers are members to labor organizations, while 90% are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages across the nation are rare.

This is a system welcomed by all parties. "We prefer the ability to negotiate freely with worker representatives and establish collective agreements," states Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses employer group.

But Tesla has upset the apple cart. Vocal chief executive Elon Musk has said he "opposes" with the idea of unions. "I just disapprove of any arrangement that establishes a sort of lords and peasants situation," he informed listeners in New York last year. "I think the unions try to create conflict within businesses."

Tesla came to Sweden starting in 2014, while the metalworkers' union has for years sought to secure a collective agreement with the company.

"Yet they wouldn't respond," states Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "And we got the belief that they tried to hide away or evade discussing this with our representatives."

She states the organization ultimately saw no alternative except to call industrial action, beginning on 27 October, 2023. "Typically it's enough to make a warning," says the union leader. "Employers usually agrees to the agreement."

But not on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, who is from Latvia, started working with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that pay & work terms frequently dependent on the whim of supervisors.

He recalls a performance review where he states he was denied a salary increase because that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a coworker was reported to be turned down for increased compensation because having an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, not everyone went out on strike. Tesla employed some 130 mechanics working when the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall says that today approximately 70 of its members are on strike.

The automaker has long since substituted the striking workers with new workers, for which that has not occurred since the Great Depression.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] openly and systematically," says German Bender, an analyst at Arena Idé, a policy organization supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not illegal, this being crucial to recognize. But it violates all established norms. Yet the company doesn't care about norms.

"They aim to become convention challengers. Thus when anyone informs them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive that as praise."

The company's Swedish subsidiary declined attempts for comment via correspondence citing "record deliveries".

Indeed, the company has given just a single press discussion during the entire period after the industrial action started.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a financial publication that it suited the organization more not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to collaborate directly with the team and give them the best possible conditions".

Mr Stark rejected that the choice not to enter a collective agreement was one made by US leadership overseas. "We have a mandate to take independent such choices," he said.

IF Metall is not entirely isolated in its fight. The strike has been supported from several of labor organizations.

Port workers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries and Finland, decline to handle Teslas; waste is not collected from the automaker's Swedish facilities; while newly built charging stations remain linked to power networks in the country.

Exists an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where 20 chargers stand idle. However Tibor Blomhäll, the president of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, states Tesla owners are 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 vehicles, we can charge our cars."

With stakes high for all parties, it is difficult to see a resolution to the deadlock. The union faces the danger of setting a precedent if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

"The worry is that this could expand," states the researcher, "and ultimately {erode