EVwire brief: One of the longest-running labor disputes in Swedish history is over. IF Metall is calling off its nearly three-year strike against Tesla Sweden after the company bought out all of its remaining striking union members.
Tesla never signed a collective agreement. IF Metall posted about the strike’s end on Facebook. As shared on X by industry watcher Anders Nyman, the union blamed Tesla’s strikebreaking practices for the failure of its long strike.
“Tesla Sweden has bought out all our striking members at the company. This means that the conflict no longer has any effect. Therefore, we are discontinuing the strike measures and ending the conflict.”
In a comment to Swedish news agency TT, Veli-Pekka Säikkälä, contract secretary at LO, Sweden's trade union confederation, stated that the strike was a failure, though it brought about some changes.
"It is clear that it is a failure – there is no collective agreement in place. But what has been achieved is that Tesla has improved employment conditions during the strike."
Säikkälä did warn of a risk going forward. He stated that the idea behind collective agreements is to have fair terms and conditions so that other companies cannot compete by dumping theirs. This means that if one company decides to lower wages, others may be pressured to do the same.
Maria Lantz, communications manager for Tesla Sweden, welcomed the announcement in a written statement:
“Employment at Tesla includes all regular terms and conditions specified in Swedish laws and regulations, such as occupational pension, working hours and safe working conditions.”
The expansion of the Supercharger Network in Sweden was slowed down due to IF Metall’s strike.
Context:
The conflict began in October 2023, when IF Metall took Tesla mechanics off the job after negotiations over a collective agreement stalled. Tesla did not give in, and the dispute eventually grew into a much broader labor conflict involving sympathy actions from other Swedish unions.
Despite the breadth of the campaign, the strikes did not appear to significantly dent Tesla's operations, with sales even rising 71% year-over-year in May 2026. By early 2026, the strike had dwindled to just a handful of holdouts. IF Metall acknowledged then that there were limits to how long workers could sustain the action, and the remaining strikers grew frustrated with a new 40-hour weekly picket duty requirement. Earlier this week, reports emerged stating that less than a handful of Tesla mechanics remain on strike in Stockholm and Uppsala.
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