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Across Sweden, approximately seventy automotive technicians persist to confront one of the world's richest corporations – Tesla. This labor strike targeting the American carmaker's 10 Swedish repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, and there is minimal sign for a settlement.

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

"It's a difficult period," remarks the worker in his late thirties. And as Sweden's cold seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to grow even tougher.

The mechanic devotes every start of the week with a fellow worker, standing near an electric vehicle service center on an industrial park located in southern Sweden. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides accommodation in the form of a mobile construction vehicle, as well as coffee & sandwiches.

But it's business as usual nearby, where the workshop seems to operate in full swing.

This industrial action involves an issue that reaches to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to bargain for wages and conditions representing their members. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has supported industrial relations in Sweden for almost a century.

Today approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's employees are members to labor organizations, and ninety percent are covered by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages in Sweden occur infrequently.

This is a system welcomed by all parties. "We prefer the right to negotiate freely with worker representatives and establish collective agreements," states Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses business organization.

But the electric car company has upset established practices. Outspoken chief executive the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I just don't like anything which creates a kind of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed listeners at an event in 2023. "In my view labor groups attempt to create negativity in a company."

The automaker entered Sweden back in the mid-2010s, while the metalworkers' union has long sought to secure a labor contract with the company.

"But they did not reply," says Marie Nilsson, the union's president. "We formed the belief that they tried to avoid or not discuss the matter with us."

She says the union eventually saw no other option than to announce industrial action, beginning on 27 October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to issue a warning," comments the union leader. "Employers typically signs the contract."

However this did not happen on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, who is of Latvian origin, started working for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that wages and work terms frequently dependent on the whim of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he states he was refused an annual pay rise on grounds that he "not reaching company targets". At the same time, a colleague was said to have been rejected for a pay rise due to having the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone went out on strike. The company had approximately one hundred thirty technicians employed when the industrial action was called. The union states that today around 70 of their represented workers are on strike.

Tesla has since substituted these with replacement staff, a situation there is not occurred since the 1930s.

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

"It's not against the law, which is important to recognize. However it goes against all established norms. Yet the company shows no concern for conventions.

"They aim to become norm breakers. So if anyone tells them, listen, you are breaking a standard, they perceive this as a compliment."

The automaker's local division refused attempts for comment via correspondence mentioning "record vehicle shipments".

In fact, the company has given only one media interview in the two years after the industrial action started.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", the executive, told a financial publication that it benefited the organization better not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to collaborate directly with the team and give workers optimal conditions".

The executive denied that the choice to avoid a labor contract was one made by US leadership overseas. "Our division possesses authorization to take our own such decisions," he said.

The union is not completely alone in this conflict. The strike has been supported from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Denmark, Norway & Finland, are refusing to handle the company's vehicles; waste is not collected from the automaker's Swedish facilities; and recently constructed power points are not being connected to the grid across the nation.

Exists an example close to the capital's airport, at which twenty charging units stand idle. However Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, states Tesla owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists another charging station six miles from this location," he comments. "And we can continue to purchase vehicles, we can maintain our cars, we can power our electric cars."

With consequences high for all parties, it's hard to envision an end to the deadlock. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern if it concedes the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

"The concern is that this could expand," states the researcher, "and eventually {erode