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Across Sweden, approximately 70 car technicians continue to challenge among the world's richest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The industrial action targeting the American automaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, with little indication of a resolution.

Janis Kuzma has been at the electric car company's picket line since the autumn of 2023.

"It has been a tough time," states the 39-year-old. And as the nation's chilly winter weather sets in, it's likely to grow more challenging.

The mechanic devotes every start of the week with a colleague, standing outside an electric vehicle garage within an industrial park located in southern Sweden. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides shelter in the form of a portable builders' van, as well as coffee & light meals.

However it remains business as usual across the road, where the workshop seems to be in full swing.

The strike concerns an issue that goes to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the authority of trade unions to negotiate wages & conditions representing their members. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has supported industrial relations across the nation for almost a century.

Currently approximately 70% of Scandinavia's employees are members of a trade union, and 90% are covered by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

This is an arrangement supported by all parties. "We favor the ability to bargain directly with the unions and establish labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses business organization.

But Tesla has disrupted established practices. Outspoken CEO Elon Musk has said he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I simply disapprove of anything that establishes a sort of hierarchical situation," he informed listeners at an event last year. "I think the unions attempt to create conflict in a company."

The automaker came to the Scandinavian market starting in the mid-2010s, while the metalworkers' union has for years wanted to establish a labor contract with the company.

"But they wouldn't reply," states Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "And we got the impression that they tried to avoid or not discuss this with our representatives."

She states the organization eventually found no alternative except to call industrial action, which started on 27 October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to make the threat," says the union leader. "The company typically agrees to the contract."

However not on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, who is from Latvia, started working with the automaker several years ago. He claims that wages and work terms were often subject to the discretion of managers.

He remembers an evaluation meeting where he says he was denied an annual pay rise because that he "failing to meet company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was said to be rejected for a pay rise because having the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, not everyone participated in the industrial action. Tesla had approximately 130 mechanics working at the time the industrial action was called. IF Metall states that today around seventy of its members are participating in the action.

Tesla has long since replaced these with replacement staff, for which that has no precedent since the 1930s.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and systematically," says a labor researcher, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not illegal, which is crucial to understand. However it violates all traditional norms. But Tesla shows no concern for conventions.

"They want to be norm breakers. Thus when somebody informs them, listen, you are violating a standard, they see this as a compliment."

The company's local division declined attempts for comment in an email mentioning "all-time high vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the automaker has given only one media interview during the entire period since the strike began.

Earlier this year, the local division's "national manager, the executive, informed a financial publication that it suited the company better to avoid a collective agreement, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and provide workers the best possible terms".

Mr Stark denied that the choice to avoid a collective agreement was one made at Tesla headquarters overseas. "We have authorization to make our own such choices," he said.

IF Metall is not completely alone in its fight. This industrial action has received backing from several of other unions.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & neighboring states, decline to handle Teslas; rubbish is no longer collected from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; while newly built power points are not being linked to the grid across the nation.

Exists one such facility near the capital's airport, at which 20 charging units remain unused. However a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says Tesla owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There exists another charging station 10km from here," he comments. "Plus we are able to continue to purchase vehicles, we can service our vehicles, we can power our electric cars."

With consequences high for all parties, it's hard to see an end to the stand-off. IF Metall risks setting a precedent if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

"The concern is how that would spread," says Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode