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Across Sweden, around 70 car technicians continue to challenge one of the world's wealthiest corporations – Tesla. The labor strike targeting the American automaker's ten Swedish repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, and there is little sign of a settlement.

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

"It's a tough period," states the 39-year-old. And as the nation's cold winter weather sets in, it is expected to grow even tougher.

The mechanic devotes every start of the week with a colleague, positioned near an electric vehicle garage within a business district in Malmö. His union, IF Metall, supplies accommodation in the form of a mobile construction vehicle, plus hot beverages and sandwiches.

However it remains business as usual across the road, where the service facility seems to operate in full swing.

The strike concerns a matter that goes to the heart of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the right for worker organizations to bargain for wages and conditions on behalf of their members. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned labor dynamics across the nation for nearly one hundred years.

Today some 70% of Scandinavia's workers belong of a trade union, while ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages in Sweden occur infrequently.

This is a system welcomed by all parties. "We prefer the ability to bargain directly with the unions and sign collective agreements," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

But Tesla has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal CEO the company leader has stated he "opposes" with the concept of unions. "I simply disapprove of anything which creates a sort of hierarchical situation," he informed listeners at an event in 2023. "I think the unions attempt to generate conflict within businesses."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market back in 2014, and IF Metall has long wanted to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"Yet they did not respond," says the union president, the union's president. "And we got the belief that they attempted to avoid or evade discussing this with us."

She says the union ultimately found no other option except to call industrial action, beginning in late October, last year. "Typically it's enough to issue a warning," comments the union leader. "The company typically agrees to the agreement."

However this did not happen in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is of Latvian origin, began employment with the automaker in 2021. He claims that wages & conditions frequently subject to the discretion of managers.

He recalls an evaluation meeting at which he states he was refused an annual pay rise on grounds he was "failing to meet company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was said to have been turned down for increased compensation because having the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, not everyone participated on strike. Tesla employed some one hundred thirty technicians employed when the industrial action was called. The union says currently around 70 of its members are on strike.

The automaker has since substituted the striking workers with replacement staff, a situation that has no precedent since the era of the Great Depression.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly & methodically," states a labor researcher, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not against the law, this being crucial to understand. However it goes against all traditional practices. But Tesla doesn't care about norms.

"They want to become convention challengers. So if somebody tells them, hey, you are breaking a norm, they perceive that as praise."

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

In fact, the automaker has granted just a single press discussion in the two years since the industrial action started.

In March 2024, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a business paper that it benefited the company better not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to collaborate directly with the team and give workers the best possible conditions".

The executive rejected that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined at Tesla headquarters in the US. "Our division possesses authorization to take independent such decisions," he stated.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in this conflict. This industrial action has received backing by a number of other unions.

Port workers in nearby Denmark, Norway & Finland, are refusing to process Teslas; waste is not collected from Tesla's Swedish facilities; and newly built power points remain connected to the grid in the country.

There is an example close to the capital's airport, at which twenty chargers stand idle. But Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, states Tesla owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's another charging station 10km from this location," he comments. "And we can still purchase vehicles, we can service our cars, we can power our electric cars."

With stakes significant on both sides, it is difficult to envision an end to the deadlock. The union risks setting a precedent should it surrender the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

"The concern is that this could expand," states Mr Bender, "and ultimately {erode