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Across Sweden, approximately 70 car technicians continue to challenge one of the world's richest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action at the US automaker's 10 Swedish repair facilities has now entered its second anniversary, with minimal sign for a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has been on the electric car company's picket line since the autumn of 2023.

"It's a difficult period," states the worker in his late thirties. With the nation's cold seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to become more challenging.

Janis spends every start of the week alongside a colleague, positioned outside a Tesla service center within a business district in Malmö. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies accommodation in the form of a portable builders' van, plus coffee and light meals.

However it remains business as usual across the road, at which the service facility seems to operate in full swing.

This industrial action involves an issue that goes to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to bargain for pay & conditions on behalf of their members. This principle of collective agreement has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly a century.

Currently approximately 70% of Swedish workers belong to labor organizations, and 90% are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes across the nation are rare.

It's an arrangement welcomed by all parties. "We favor the ability to bargain freely with the unions and establish collective agreements," states a business representative from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

But Tesla has upset established practices. Vocal chief executive the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I simply don't like any arrangement that establishes a sort of hierarchical situation," he told listeners in New York last year. "I think the unions attempt to generate conflict in a company."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market starting in the mid-2010s, and the metalworkers' union has for years sought to secure a collective agreement with the automaker.

"Yet they wouldn't respond," states the union president, the organization's leader. "We formed the impression that they tried to avoid or evade discussing the matter with our representatives."

She says the organization ultimately found no alternative except to announce industrial action, beginning on 27 October, 2023. "Typically the threat suffices to issue the threat," says the union leader. "Employers usually agrees to the contract."

But this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, started working with the automaker in 2021. He claims that pay & work terms were often dependent on the whim of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he states he was refused an annual pay rise because that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was reported to have been turned down for increased compensation due to having the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, some workers participated on strike. The company employed approximately 130 mechanics working when the strike was initiated. IF Metall says that today approximately seventy of their represented workers are on strike.

The automaker has since replaced these with new workers, a situation that has not occurred since the era of the Great Depression.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and methodically," states a labor researcher, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not illegal, which is crucial to recognize. But it goes against all established practices. Yet Tesla shows no concern for conventions.

"They aim to be norm breakers. So if anyone informs them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as praise."

The company's Swedish subsidiary refused attempts for interview in an email mentioning "all-time high vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the company has given just a single press discussion in the two years since the industrial action began.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a business paper that it benefited the company more to avoid a union contract, and rather "to work closely with employees and give workers optimal terms".

Mr Stark rejected that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was one made at Tesla headquarters overseas. "Our division possesses a mandate to make our own such decisions," he stated.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in this conflict. The strike has received backing by a number of other unions.

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & Finland, decline to handle Teslas; rubbish is no longer removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; and recently constructed power points remain linked to the grid across the nation.

Exists an example close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where 20 charging units stand idle. But Tibor Blomhäll, the president of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, states vehicle owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's an alternative power point 10km from this location," he comments. "Plus we are able to still purchase vehicles, we can maintain our cars, we can power our cars."

With consequences high for all parties, it is difficult to envision an end to the stand-off. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

"The worry is how that would spread," says Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode