After two years of striking in Sweden against carmaker Tesla over its refusal to sign a collective wage agreement, the union which launched the action told AFP Thursday it has no plans to end it.
The Swedish strike was launched by the metal workers鈥� union IF Metall on October 27, 2023, when mechanics at 10 Tesla repair shops in seven cities walked off the job over Tesla鈥檚 refusal to sign a collective agreement with the metalworkers鈥� union IF Metall.
鈥楾hat is what we demanded two years ago and that is what we are demanding today,鈥� Simon Peterson, negotiating secretary at IF Metall, told AFP.
Peterson added the union had no plans to abandon the strike, which is now the longest in modern Swedish history.
鈥楢s long as we have members who are willing to fight for collective agreements, we are able to strike,鈥� he said.
As one of Sweden鈥檚 larger unions, IF Metall has a fund to cover strike costs of about 10 billion kronor ($1 billion).
Negotiated sector by sector, collective agreements with unions form the basis of the Nordic labour market model, covering almost 90 per cent of all employees in Sweden, guaranteeing wages and working conditions.
As of Thursday, 68 Tesla employees were members of IF Metall, according to Peterson.
Since it began, IF Metall has expanded the strike several times to include other third-party repair shops that service Tesla models.
It has also grown into a larger conflict between Tesla and almost a dozen unions seeking to protect Sweden鈥檚 labour model, including postal workers, dockworkers and even spreading to neighbouring Nordic countries.
The Swedish National Mediation Office said in early September it was ending attempts to mediate between the parties despite not having found an agreement, telling public broadcaster Sveriges Radio they had 鈥榬eached the end of the road鈥�.
Peterson said there had been no negotiations since the mediation office abandoned the issue.
The union representative conceded the strike had not had the full intended effect, accusing Tesla of using an 鈥榦utdated鈥� approach to labour disputes by hiring people in Sweden and flying staff in from abroad to circumvent the strike.
According to trade magazine Vi Bilagare, many Tesla owners say the impact of the strike has been minimal.
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has long rejected calls to allow the company鈥檚 over 1,00,000 employees worldwide to unionise.
The company鈥檚 Swedish subsidiary has previously argued their workers have 鈥榚quivalent or better agreements鈥� than those under collective agreements.
Tesla did not respond to AFP鈥檚 request for comment.
