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Across Sweden, approximately 70 automotive technicians persist to confront one of the globe's wealthiest companies – Tesla. This industrial action at the American carmaker's ten Scandinavian repair facilities has now entered two years of duration, and there is little indication for a resolution.

One striking worker has remained at the Tesla protest line starting from the autumn of 2023.

"It's a difficult period," states the worker in his late thirties. With Sweden's cold seasonal conditions arrives, it is expected to grow even tougher.

Janis devotes each Monday with a fellow worker, positioned outside a Tesla garage on an industrial park in Malmö. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides accommodation in the form of a mobile construction vehicle, as well as coffee & sandwiches.

However it's operations continue normally across the road, at which the workshop seems to be at full capacity.

This industrial action involves an issue that reaches to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the authority of trade unions to bargain for pay and conditions representing their members. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned industrial relations across the nation for nearly a century.

Today some seventy percent of Swedish workers belong to labor organizations, and ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages across the nation are rare.

This is a system supported by all parties. "We favor the right to bargain freely with worker representatives and establish labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

However the electric car company has disrupted established practices. Outspoken chief executive the company leader has stated he "opposes" with the idea of unions. "I simply don't like any arrangement which creates a sort of lords and peasants situation," he told an audience in New York in 2023. "I think the unions try to generate negativity in a company."

Tesla entered the Scandinavian market starting in the mid-2010s, while IF Metall has long sought to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"Yet they did not respond," says Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "We formed the impression that they attempted to avoid or evade discussing this with our representatives."

She says the organization ultimately saw no alternative than to call industrial action, which started in late October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to make the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "Employers typically agrees to the contract."

But this did not happen on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, originally from Latvia, began employment with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that pay & conditions were often subject to the whim of managers.

He remembers a performance review where he states he was denied a salary increase on grounds he was "not reaching company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to be turned down for increased compensation due to having an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, some workers participated in the industrial action. Tesla employed approximately one hundred thirty technicians working when the strike was called. IF Metall states that today around seventy of its members are participating in the action.

The automaker has long since replaced the striking workers with new workers, a situation there is no precedent since the era of the 1930s.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly & systematically," states German Bender, a researcher at Arena Idé, a policy organization supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not illegal, this being crucial to understand. However it goes against all traditional norms. But Tesla shows no concern for conventions.

"They want to be norm breakers. Thus when somebody informs them, listen, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as praise."

The company's Swedish subsidiary declined requests for interview via correspondence mentioning "all-time high vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the automaker has given just a single media interview in the two years since the industrial action began.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, Jens Stark, informed a financial publication that it benefited the company more to avoid a union contract, and rather "to work closely with the team and provide workers optimal conditions".

The executive denied that the decision not to enter a collective agreement was determined by US leadership in the US. "Our division possesses authorization to make our own such decisions," he said.

IF Metall is not entirely isolated in its fight. This industrial action has received backing from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries and neighboring states, decline to process Teslas; waste is no longer collected from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; and newly built power points are not being connected to the grid across the nation.

There is one such facility close to the capital's airport, at which 20 chargers remain unused. However a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, states vehicle owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists another charging station six miles from here," he comments. "Plus we are able to continue to purchase vehicles, we can maintain our vehicles, we can power our electric cars."

With stakes high for all parties, it is difficult to envision a resolution to the deadlock. IF Metall faces the danger of establishing a pattern should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

"The worry is how that would spread," states the researcher, "and eventually {erode