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Across Sweden, approximately seventy car technicians continue to confront one of the globe's richest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The industrial action at the American automaker's 10 Swedish repair facilities has now entered two years of duration, with little indication for a resolution.

Janis Kuzma has been on the Tesla protest line starting from the autumn of 2023.

"It has been a tough time," states the worker in his late thirties. And as the nation's chilly winter weather sets in, it's likely to become more challenging.

Janis spends each Monday alongside a fellow worker, standing near an electric vehicle garage within an industrial park in Malmö. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides accommodation via a portable construction vehicle, plus coffee & light meals.

However it remains operations continue normally across the road, where the service facility seems to be at full capacity.

The strike concerns an issue that reaches to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to negotiate pay and conditions representing their workforce. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics across the nation for almost a century.

Currently some 70% of Scandinavia's employees are members to labor organizations, and 90% are covered by a collective agreement. Strikes in Sweden occur infrequently.

It's an arrangement supported across the board. "We prefer the right to negotiate directly with worker representatives and sign labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

However the electric car company has upset established practices. Outspoken CEO Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of unions. "I simply disapprove of any arrangement that establishes a sort of hierarchical sort of thing," he told listeners in New York last year. "I think the unions attempt to generate negativity within businesses."

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

"Yet they did not reply," says the union president, the union's president. "We formed the belief that they attempted to avoid or not discuss this with our representatives."

She states the organization ultimately found no other option except to announce a strike, which started on 27 October, 2023. "Typically the threat suffices to issue the threat," says Ms Nilsson. "The company usually signs the agreement."

However this did not happen in this case.

Janis Kuzma, originally from Latvia, began employment with the automaker several years ago. He claims that pay and work terms were often subject to the whim of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting at which he says he was denied a salary increase on grounds that he "failing to meet Tesla's goals". At the same time, a colleague was reported to be turned down for increased compensation because having an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers participated in the industrial action. The company employed approximately one hundred thirty technicians employed at the time the industrial action was called. IF Metall states currently approximately seventy of its members are on strike.

Tesla has long since replaced these with replacement staff, for which that has not occurred since the Great Depression.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and systematically," states German Bender, a researcher at Arena Idé, a think tank supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not illegal, this being crucial to understand. However it goes against all traditional practices. But Tesla shows no concern about norms.

"They aim to be convention challengers. So if somebody tells them, hey, you are violating a standard, they see this as praise."

The automaker's local division refused requests for comment in an email citing "record vehicle shipments".

In fact, the automaker has given only one press discussion in the two years after the industrial action began.

Earlier this year, the local division's "national manager, Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it benefited the company better not to have a union contract, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and provide workers optimal conditions".

Mr Stark rejected that the decision to avoid a labor contract was one made by US leadership overseas. "We have a mandate to make independent such decisions," he stated.

The union is not completely alone in its fight. The strike has received backing from several of other unions.

Port workers in nearby Denmark, Norway & Finland, are refusing to handle the company's vehicles; waste is not collected from the automaker's Swedish facilities; while recently constructed charging stations are not being linked to the grid in the country.

There is an example near the capital's airport, at which twenty charging units remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, states vehicle owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There exists an alternative power point 10km from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to continue to purchase vehicles, we can service our vehicles, we can power our electric cars."

With stakes significant for all parties, it is difficult to see an end to the stand-off. IF Metall faces the danger of setting a precedent if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

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