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In Sweden, approximately 70 automotive technicians persist to confront one of the globe's richest corporations – Tesla. The industrial action at the American automaker's ten Swedish service centers has now reached two years of duration, and there is little sign for a resolution.

One striking worker has been on the electric car company's protest line since the autumn of 2023.

"It has been a difficult period," remarks the 39-year-old. With Sweden's cold seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to become more challenging.

Janis devotes every start of the week with a colleague, positioned outside a Tesla garage on an industrial park located in southern Sweden. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies accommodation in the form of a mobile builders' van, plus hot beverages and light meals.

However it remains operations continue normally nearby, at which the service facility seems to be at full capacity.

This industrial action concerns an issue that reaches to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to bargain for pay & working terms representing their members. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for almost a century.

Today some 70% of Swedish employees are members to labor organizations, and 90% are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages in Sweden are rare.

This is a system supported across the board. "We favor the ability to negotiate freely with worker representatives and establish collective agreements," says a business representative from the Association of Swedish Businesses business organization.

But Tesla has upset established practices. Vocal chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of any arrangement that establishes a kind of lords and peasants sort of thing," he informed listeners in New York in 2023. "In my view the unions attempt to create conflict in a company."

Tesla entered the Scandinavian market back in the mid-2010s, and IF Metall has long wanted to secure a labor contract with the automaker.

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

She says the union eventually found no other option than to call industrial action, which started on 27 October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to issue the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "The company typically agrees to the contract."

But this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, who is of Latvian origin, began employment with the automaker in 2021. He claims that wages & work terms frequently subject to the whim of supervisors.

He remembers a performance review where he states he was denied a salary increase because he was "failing to meet company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to be turned down for increased compensation due to he had the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, not everyone participated in the industrial action. Tesla employed approximately one hundred thirty technicians employed at the time the industrial action was called. The union says currently approximately seventy of its members are on strike.

Tesla has long since replaced the striking workers with replacement staff, for which there is no precedent since the Great Depression.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly and methodically," states a labor researcher, a researcher at Arena Idé, a think tank financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not illegal, this being crucial to recognize. But it violates all established norms. Yet Tesla shows no concern for conventions.

"They aim to be convention challengers. So if anyone tells them, hey, you are violating a norm, they perceive this as praise."

The company's Swedish subsidiary refused requests for interview via correspondence mentioning "record vehicle shipments".

In fact, the automaker has given just a single press discussion during the entire period after the industrial action started.

Earlier this year, the local division's "country lead", the executive, informed a financial publication that it benefited the organization better to avoid a collective agreement, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and give them optimal conditions".

The executive rejected that the choice not to enter a collective agreement was determined by US leadership overseas. "We have a mandate to make our own such choices," he said.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in its fight. The strike has been supported by a number of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & neighboring states, are refusing to handle Teslas; rubbish is not removed from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; while newly built charging stations remain connected to the grid in the country.

Exists one such facility close to the capital's airport, where twenty chargers stand idle. But Tibor Blomhäll, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, states vehicle owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There exists an alternative power point 10km from here," he says. "Plus we are able to still purchase vehicles, we can service our cars, we can charge our cars."

With consequences significant on both sides, it is difficult to envision a resolution to the deadlock. The union faces the danger of establishing a pattern if it concedes the principle of collective agreement.

"The concern is that that would spread," states the researcher, "and ultimately {erode