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Across Sweden, around 70 car technicians continue to confront one of the world's richest corporations – Tesla. The industrial action at the American carmaker's 10 Swedish service centers has now reached its second anniversary, and there is minimal indication of a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has been at the electric car company's protest line since October 2023.

"It's a tough time," remarks the 39-year-old. With the nation's cold winter weather arrives, it is expected to become more challenging.

The mechanic spends every start of the week alongside a fellow worker, positioned near an electric vehicle service center on an industrial park located in southern Sweden. His union, IF Metall, provides shelter in the form of a portable builders' van, plus hot beverages and light meals.

However it's business as usual nearby, where the service facility seems to be at full capacity.

This industrial action concerns a matter that reaches to the heart of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the right for worker organizations to negotiate wages & working terms on behalf of their workforce. This concept of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly a century.

Today some 70% of Scandinavia's employees belong to labor organizations, and ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages in Sweden are rare.

This is an arrangement supported by all parties. "We prefer the right to bargain directly with worker representatives and sign labor contracts," states a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

However Tesla has disrupted the apple cart. Outspoken chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I simply disapprove of anything that establishes a kind of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed an audience in New York in 2023. "I think labor groups try to generate conflict in a company."

Tesla came to Sweden starting in the mid-2010s, and the metalworkers' union has long wanted to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"But they wouldn't reply," states the union president, the union's president. "We formed the belief that they attempted to hide away or evade discussing the matter with our representatives."

She says the union eventually saw no other option than to announce industrial action, which started on 27 October, 2023. "Typically it's enough to make a warning," says the union leader. "Employers usually signs the contract."

However not in this case.

The striking mechanic, who is from Latvia, started working for Tesla several years ago. He asserts that wages & conditions frequently dependent on the whim of managers.

He recalls a performance review at which he says he was refused an annual pay rise because that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to have been rejected for increased compensation due to he had the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, not everyone went out on strike. Tesla had approximately 130 mechanics working when the industrial action was called. The union says that today approximately 70 of their represented workers are on strike.

Tesla has long since replaced the striking workers with replacement staff, for which that has not occurred since the 1930s.

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] publicly & methodically," says a labor researcher, an analyst at a research institute, a policy organization financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not against the law, this being crucial to recognize. But it violates all established practices. But Tesla shows no concern for conventions.

"They want to be norm breakers. So if anyone informs them, hey, you are breaking a norm, they see that as praise."

The company's local division refused requests for comment in an email mentioning "record deliveries".

Indeed, the automaker has granted only one media interview during the entire period after the strike began.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it benefited the company better not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to work closely with the team and provide them optimal terms".

The executive rejected that the decision to avoid a labor contract was determined by US leadership overseas. "We have a mandate to take our own such choices," he stated.

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

Dockworkers in neighbouring Denmark, Norway and neighboring states, are refusing to handle the company's vehicles; waste is not collected from Tesla's Swedish facilities; and recently constructed charging stations remain connected to the grid across the nation.

There is one such facility close to the capital's airport, at which 20 chargers stand idle. However Tibor Blomhäll, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, states Tesla owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's another charging station 10km from this location," he comments. "And we can continue to purchase vehicles, we can service our cars, we can power our cars."

With consequences significant on both sides, it's hard to envision a resolution to the deadlock. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

"The worry is that this could expand," says Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode