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In Sweden, around 70 car mechanics persist to confront one of the globe's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This labor strike at the American automaker's ten Swedish repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, and there is minimal sign for a settlement.

One striking worker has remained at the Tesla protest line since October 2023.

"It's a tough time," remarks the worker in his late thirties. With the nation's cold seasonal conditions arrives, it is expected to grow even tougher.

Janis spends every start of the week with a fellow worker, standing near a Tesla garage on a business district located in southern Sweden. His union, IF Metall, supplies accommodation in the form of a mobile construction vehicle, as well as coffee & light meals.

However it remains business as usual nearby, where the workshop seems to operate at full capacity.

The strike concerns an issue that goes to the core of Swedish industrial culture – the authority for worker organizations to negotiate wages and conditions representing their workforce. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly one hundred years.

Today approximately 70% of Scandinavia's workers are members to labor organizations, and 90% fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages across the nation are rare.

It's a system welcomed across the board. "We prefer the ability to negotiate directly with worker representatives and establish labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

However Tesla has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply don't like any arrangement which creates a sort of lords and peasants sort of thing," he told an audience at an event last year. "In my view labor groups try to create conflict in a company."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market starting in 2014, and the metalworkers' union has for years sought to establish a collective agreement with the automaker.

"But they wouldn't reply," states the union president, the union's president. "And we got the belief that they tried to avoid or evade discussing this with us."

She says the union ultimately found no alternative except to announce a strike, beginning on 27 October, 2023. "Typically the threat suffices to make a warning," comments the union leader. "Employers usually signs the contract."

However not on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, who is from Latvia, started working for Tesla several years ago. He asserts that wages and work terms were often dependent on the whim of managers.

He remembers a performance review at which he states he was denied a salary increase on grounds he was "failing to meet company targets". Meanwhile, a coworker was said to be rejected for a pay rise because he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers participated in the industrial action. The company employed approximately 130 mechanics working at the time the industrial action was called. The union states that today approximately seventy of their represented workers are on strike.

Tesla has since substituted these with new workers, for which that has not occurred since the era of the Great Depression.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly & methodically," states German Bender, an analyst at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not illegal, which is crucial to understand. But it goes against all established practices. Yet Tesla doesn't care for conventions.

"They aim to become norm breakers. So if anyone informs them, hey, you are violating a norm, they perceive that as a compliment."

The automaker's local division refused requests for interview via correspondence mentioning "all-time high vehicle shipments".

In fact, the automaker has given just a single press discussion in the two years since the industrial action started.

In March 2024, the local division's "national manager, the executive, told a financial publication that it suited the organization better not to have a union contract, and instead "to work closely with employees and give them optimal conditions".

The executive denied that the choice not to enter a collective agreement was one made at Tesla headquarters in the US. "Our division possesses authorization to take independent such choices," he stated.

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

Port workers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & Finland, decline to handle Teslas; rubbish is not collected from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; while recently constructed charging stations are not being connected to the grid in the country.

There is an example near the capital's airport, where twenty chargers remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says Tesla owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There exists another charging station 10km from here," he comments. "And we can still buy our cars, we can maintain our cars, we can charge our cars."

With stakes high for all parties, it is difficult to see an end to the deadlock. IF Metall risks setting a precedent should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

"The worry is how this could expand," states Mr Bender, "and ultimately {erode