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Across Sweden, around 70 car technicians persist to confront one of the globe's wealthiest corporations – Tesla. The industrial action at the American carmaker's ten Swedish repair facilities has now reached two years of duration, and there is little sign of a settlement.

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

"It's a tough period," states the 39-year-old. With the nation's chilly seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to grow more challenging.

The mechanic spends every start of the week with a colleague, standing near an electric vehicle garage within an industrial park located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies accommodation via a mobile construction vehicle, plus hot beverages & light meals.

However it remains operations continue normally nearby, where the workshop seems to be in full swing.

This industrial action concerns a matter that goes to the heart of Swedish industrial culture – the right of trade unions to negotiate wages & working terms representing their members. This concept of collective agreement has supported industrial relations across the nation for almost one hundred years.

Today approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's employees belong to labor organizations, and 90% are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes across the nation are rare.

This is an arrangement supported across the board. "We prefer the right to bargain freely with the unions and establish labor contracts," states a business representative from the Association of Swedish Businesses business organization.

But the electric car company has upset the apple cart. Outspoken CEO the company leader has said he "opposes" with the idea of unions. "I just disapprove of anything that establishes a kind of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed an audience at an event in 2023. "I think the unions try to generate conflict within businesses."

Tesla came to Sweden starting in the mid-2010s, and the metalworkers' union has long wanted to establish a labor contract with the company.

"But they did not respond," states Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "And we got the belief that they attempted to hide away or not discuss this with our representatives."

She states the organization ultimately found no alternative than to call a strike, beginning in late October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to make the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "The company usually signs the contract."

But not in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is from Latvia, began employment with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that pay & conditions were often subject to the whim of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he says he was denied a salary increase on grounds that he "failing to meet company targets". At the same time, a coworker was reported to be turned down for a pay rise because he had the "wrong attitude".

However, some workers went out on strike. The company employed some 130 technicians employed when the strike was called. IF Metall states currently approximately 70 of their represented workers are on strike.

Tesla has long since substituted the striking workers with replacement staff, for which that has no precedent since the Great Depression.

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

"It is not illegal, which is crucial to recognize. But it violates all traditional practices. But the company shows no concern about norms.

"They aim to be norm breakers. Thus when anyone tells them, hey, you are violating a norm, they perceive that as praise."

The company's Swedish subsidiary refused requests for interview in an email citing "all-time high deliveries".

Indeed, the automaker has granted just a single media interview during the entire period since the industrial action started.

Earlier this year, the local division's "national manager, the executive, told a business paper that it benefited the organization more to avoid a union contract, and rather "to work closely with employees and provide them optimal conditions".

Mr Stark denied that the choice to avoid a collective agreement was determined by US leadership overseas. "We have a mandate to take our own such choices," he said.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in this conflict. This industrial action has received backing from several of labor organizations.

Port workers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries and neighboring states, are refusing to process the company's vehicles; rubbish is not removed from Tesla's Swedish facilities; while recently constructed power points remain connected to power networks across the nation.

Exists an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where twenty charging units remain unused. However a Tesla enthusiast, the president of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There exists an alternative power point six miles from here," he comments. "And we can still purchase vehicles, we can service our cars, we can charge our electric cars."

With stakes significant for all parties, it is difficult to envision an end to the deadlock. The union faces the danger of setting a precedent should it surrender the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

"The worry is that that would spread," says the researcher, "and eventually {erode