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In Sweden, approximately 70 automotive technicians persist to challenge one of the globe's richest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action at the US automaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has currently entered two years of duration, and there is little indication of a resolution.

Janis Kuzma has remained at the Tesla protest line since October 2023.

"It has been a tough period," remarks the worker in his late thirties. And as the nation's cold winter weather arrives, it is expected to grow even tougher.

Janis spends each Monday with a fellow worker, standing outside a Tesla service center on a business district in Malmö. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides accommodation via a portable builders' van, as well as coffee and sandwiches.

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

This industrial action concerns a matter that goes to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the right of trade unions to bargain for pay and conditions on behalf of their members. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Today some seventy percent of Swedish workers belong to labor organizations, while 90% fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

This is an arrangement supported by all parties. "We prefer the ability to negotiate freely with worker representatives and sign collective agreements," says Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses business organization.

However the electric car company has upset established practices. Outspoken CEO Elon Musk has stated he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just don't like any arrangement that establishes a sort of lords and peasants situation," he informed an audience in New York last year. "In my view labor groups attempt to create conflict within businesses."

The automaker entered Sweden back in 2014, and IF Metall has long sought to secure a labor contract with the company.

"Yet they did not reply," states the union president, the organization's leader. "We formed the impression that they attempted to hide away or evade discussing the matter with us."

She says the union eventually found no alternative except to announce a strike, beginning in late October, last year. "Typically the threat suffices to issue a warning," comments Ms Nilsson. "Employers usually signs the agreement."

However this did not happen in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is of Latvian origin, started working for Tesla several years ago. He claims that pay and work terms frequently subject to the discretion of supervisors.

He remembers a performance review at which he says he was denied an annual pay rise because he was "not reaching company targets". At the same time, a coworker was reported to have been rejected for a pay rise due to he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, not everyone participated in the industrial action. Tesla had approximately one hundred thirty mechanics employed when the strike was initiated. IF Metall says that today approximately seventy of their represented workers are participating in the action.

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

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] publicly and systematically," says German Bender, an analyst at a research institute, a think tank financed by Swedish trade unions.

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

"They want to become convention challengers. Thus when somebody informs them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive that as praise."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary refused attempts for comment via correspondence citing "all-time high vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the automaker has granted just a single press discussion during the entire period after the strike began.

In March 2024, the local division's "country lead", the executive, told a business paper that it benefited the company better not to have a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and give them optimal conditions".

The executive rejected that the choice to avoid a labor contract was determined by US leadership overseas. "Our division possesses a mandate to make independent such choices," he said.

The union is not entirely alone in this conflict. This industrial action has been supported from several of other unions.

Port workers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries and neighboring states, are refusing to process Teslas; waste is not removed from the automaker's Swedish facilities; while recently constructed power points remain linked to power networks in the country.

Exists one such facility near the capital's airport, at which 20 charging units remain unused. However Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, says Tesla owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's another charging station 10km from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to still buy our cars, we can service our vehicles, we can charge our electric cars."

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

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