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Across Sweden, around 70 car mechanics continue to challenge one of the globe's richest companies – Tesla. The industrial action targeting the American carmaker's ten Scandinavian repair facilities has now entered two years of duration, with minimal sign of a settlement.

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

"It's a tough time," states the worker in his late thirties. And as Sweden's cold winter weather arrives, it's likely to become more challenging.

The mechanic spends every start of the week alongside a colleague, positioned outside an electric vehicle service center within an industrial park located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides shelter in the form of a portable builders' van, plus hot beverages & light meals.

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

This industrial action involves a matter that reaches to the heart of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the right of trade unions to bargain for wages & conditions on behalf of their members. This principle of collective agreement has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Currently some 70% of Scandinavia's employees are members to labor organizations, while 90% fall under by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages in Sweden are rare.

This is an arrangement supported by all parties. "We prefer the ability to negotiate directly with the unions and establish collective agreements," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

However the electric car company has disrupted established practices. Vocal chief executive the company leader has stated he "opposes" with the idea of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of any arrangement that establishes a kind of lords and peasants situation," he informed listeners in New York in 2023. "I think labor groups attempt to generate negativity within businesses."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market starting in 2014, while the metalworkers' union has long sought to secure a labor contract with the automaker.

"But they wouldn't reply," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's leader. "And we got the belief that they tried to avoid or not discuss this with us."

She states the organization ultimately saw no other option except to announce a strike, beginning on 27 October, 2023. "Usually it's enough to make the threat," comments the union leader. "Employers typically agrees to the agreement."

However this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, who is of Latvian origin, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that wages & work terms were often subject to the discretion of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting at which he says he was refused a salary increase on grounds he was "failing to meet company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to be turned down for increased compensation because having the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, some workers participated on strike. The company had approximately one hundred thirty technicians employed when the strike was initiated. IF Metall states currently around seventy of their represented workers are participating in the action.

Tesla has since substituted the striking workers with new workers, for which that has not occurred since the era of the 1930s.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] openly and systematically," states German Bender, an analyst at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not against the law, this being important to understand. But it goes against all established norms. But the company shows no concern for conventions.

"They want to become norm breakers. So if anyone tells them, hey, you are violating a norm, they see this as a compliment."

The company's Swedish subsidiary declined requests for comment via correspondence citing "record vehicle shipments".

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

Earlier this year, the local division's "national manager, Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it suited the organization better to avoid a union contract, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and provide workers the best possible conditions".

The executive denied that the decision not to enter a collective agreement was determined by US leadership in the US. "We have a mandate to take our own such decisions," he said.

The union is not entirely alone in this conflict. The strike has received backing from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Norway & neighboring states, decline to process Teslas; waste is no longer collected from Tesla's Swedish facilities; and recently constructed power points remain linked to power networks across the nation.

There is an example close to the capital's airport, where 20 chargers stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says Tesla owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists another charging station 10km from this location," he comments. "Plus we are able to continue to buy our cars, we can service our vehicles, we can charge our cars."

With consequences high on both sides, it is difficult to envision a resolution to the stand-off. The union faces the danger of setting a precedent if it concedes the principle of collective agreement.

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