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In Sweden, approximately seventy automotive technicians continue to challenge one of the world's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The labor strike at the American carmaker's 10 Scandinavian service centers has currently entered its second anniversary, with minimal sign for a resolution.

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

"It has been a difficult period," remarks the worker in his late thirties. With the nation's chilly winter weather arrives, it's likely to grow even tougher.

Janis spends every start of the week alongside a fellow worker, standing near a Tesla service center within a business district located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, IF Metall, supplies accommodation via a mobile builders' van, plus hot beverages and sandwiches.

But it remains business as usual nearby, where the workshop appears to operate in full swing.

This industrial action concerns an issue that goes to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the authority for worker organizations to bargain for wages & conditions representing their workforce. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has supported industrial relations in Sweden for almost a century.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Swedish employees belong of a trade union, while 90% fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages in Sweden occur infrequently.

It's an arrangement supported by all parties. "We prefer the right to negotiate directly with worker representatives and establish collective agreements," states Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

However Tesla has disrupted established practices. Outspoken chief executive the company leader has said he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of anything which creates a sort of lords and peasants situation," he told listeners in New York in 2023. "I think labor groups attempt to generate negativity within businesses."

The automaker entered Sweden starting in 2014, and IF Metall has for years wanted to establish a labor contract with the company.

"Yet they wouldn't reply," states the union president, the union's president. "And we got the impression that they tried to avoid or evade discussing this with our representatives."

She says the organization ultimately found no alternative than to call a strike, beginning in late October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to make the threat," comments the union leader. "Employers typically signs the agreement."

But not on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, who is of Latvian origin, began employment with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that pay and work terms frequently subject to the discretion of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting at which he states he was refused an annual pay rise on grounds that he "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was said to have been turned down for increased compensation due to he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers participated in the industrial action. The company had some 130 mechanics employed at the time the strike was initiated. IF Metall says currently approximately 70 of its members are on strike.

Tesla has long since replaced the striking workers with new workers, a situation that has no precedent since the era of the Great Depression.

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] openly & systematically," says a labor researcher, a researcher at Arena Idé, a policy organization supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

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

"They aim to become norm breakers. So if anyone informs them, listen, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as praise."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary refused attempts for comment in an email mentioning "record vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the company has granted only one press discussion in the two years since the strike started.

Earlier this year, the local division's "country lead", the executive, told a financial publication that it benefited the company better to avoid a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and provide workers the best possible terms".

The executive denied that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined at Tesla headquarters overseas. "Our division possesses a mandate to take our own such choices," he said.

IF Metall is not entirely alone in its fight. The strike has been supported from several of labor organizations.

Port workers in neighbouring Denmark, Norway & Finland, are refusing to process Teslas; rubbish is no longer removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; and recently constructed charging stations are not being connected to the grid in the country.

There is an example near the capital's airport, where 20 charging units remain unused. However Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says Tesla owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There's an alternative power point 10km from here," he comments. "And we can still buy our cars, we can maintain our cars, we can power our electric cars."

With stakes significant for all parties, it's hard to see a resolution to the deadlock. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

"The worry is that that would spread," states Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode