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Across Sweden, around 70 car technicians persist to challenge among the world's wealthiest corporations – Tesla. This industrial action at the US automaker's ten Scandinavian repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, and there is minimal indication for a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has been on the Tesla picket line since the autumn of 2023.

"It has been a difficult period," remarks the worker in his late thirties. And as Sweden's chilly seasonal conditions sets in, it is expected to become more challenging.

The mechanic devotes every start of the week alongside a colleague, standing near an electric vehicle garage on an industrial park in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, provides accommodation in the form of a portable builders' van, plus hot beverages & sandwiches.

However it remains business as usual nearby, at which the service facility seems to be in full swing.

This industrial action involves an issue that reaches to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to negotiate pay and conditions representing their members. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has supported industrial relations across the nation for nearly a century.

Today approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's employees belong of a trade union, and ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages in Sweden are rare.

It's a system supported by all parties. "We prefer the ability to bargain directly with the unions and establish collective agreements," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

But the electric car company has disrupted established practices. Outspoken CEO Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of unions. "I simply disapprove of any arrangement that establishes a kind of hierarchical sort of thing," he told listeners at an event last year. "I think labor groups attempt to create conflict within businesses."

Tesla entered Sweden starting in the mid-2010s, while IF Metall has for years sought to secure a labor contract with the company.

"Yet they wouldn't reply," says the union president, the union's leader. "We formed the belief that they tried to avoid or evade discussing this with our representatives."

She says the organization eventually saw no alternative than to announce industrial action, which started on 27 October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to issue a warning," comments the union leader. "The company usually agrees to the agreement."

But not in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is from Latvia, began employment with the automaker several years ago. He claims that wages and work terms frequently subject to the whim of managers.

He recalls a performance review where he says he was refused a salary increase on grounds that he "failing to meet Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a coworker was said to have been turned down for increased compensation due to having the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, not everyone went out on strike. The company had approximately 130 technicians working at the time the strike was initiated. IF Metall states currently around 70 of their represented workers are on strike.

Tesla has long since substituted the striking workers with new workers, a situation there is no precedent since the Great Depression.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly & methodically," states a labor researcher, an analyst at Arena Idé, a think tank supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not illegal, this being important to recognize. But it goes against all established practices. But the company doesn't care about norms.

"They want to be norm breakers. Thus when somebody informs them, listen, you are breaking a norm, they perceive that as a compliment."

The automaker's local division declined attempts for interview in an email mentioning "all-time high deliveries".

In fact, the company has given only one media interview in the two years since the strike began.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, the executive, informed a financial publication that it benefited the organization more not to have a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and provide workers optimal conditions".

Mr Stark denied that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was one made by US leadership in the US. "Our division possesses a mandate to take our own such choices," he said.

The union is not completely alone in its fight. This industrial action has received backing by a number of labor organizations.

Port workers in neighbouring Denmark, Nordic countries & neighboring states, decline to handle Teslas; rubbish is not collected from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; while newly built power points are not being connected to the grid across the nation.

Exists one such facility close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which 20 chargers remain unused. But a Tesla enthusiast, the president of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, says Tesla owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There's an alternative power point six miles from here," he says. "Plus we are able to still buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can charge our electric cars."

With stakes high for all parties, it is difficult to envision a resolution to the stand-off. The union risks setting a precedent should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

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