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Across Sweden, approximately 70 car mechanics continue to confront one of the world's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This industrial action at the American carmaker's ten Scandinavian repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, and there is little sign for a settlement.

One striking worker has been at 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 Sweden's chilly winter weather sets in, it's likely to become even tougher.

The mechanic devotes each Monday alongside a colleague, standing outside an electric vehicle garage within an industrial park in Malmö. The labor organization, IF Metall, supplies shelter via a mobile builders' van, plus hot beverages & sandwiches.

However it remains business as usual across the road, at which the service facility seems to operate at full capacity.

The strike concerns a matter that reaches to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the right of trade unions to negotiate pay and working terms on behalf of their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Currently some 70% of Scandinavia's employees are members to labor organizations, and ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages in Sweden are rare.

It's a system supported by all parties. "We favor the ability to bargain freely with worker representatives and sign labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

However Tesla has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal CEO the company leader has stated he "opposes" with the concept of unions. "I simply don't like any arrangement which creates a sort of hierarchical situation," he informed listeners in New York in 2023. "I think labor groups try to create negativity within businesses."

Tesla came to Sweden back 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," says the union president, the organization's leader. "And we got the impression that they tried to hide away or not discuss this with us."

She says the organization eventually saw no other option except to announce industrial action, which started in late October, 2023. "Typically it's enough to make the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "The company usually agrees to the agreement."

However not on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, originally from Latvia, started working with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that pay & work terms were often subject to the discretion of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting at which he states he was refused a salary increase because he was "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a colleague was reported to be rejected for increased compensation due to he had the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone participated on strike. The company employed some one hundred thirty mechanics working at the time the strike was initiated. The union says currently around seventy of its members are participating in the action.

The automaker has long since replaced the striking workers with replacement staff, for which that has no precedent since the era of the 1930s.

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] openly and methodically," states German Bender, a researcher at Arena Idé, a think tank financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not illegal, which is crucial to understand. However it violates all established practices. Yet Tesla doesn't care about norms.

"They aim to be convention challengers. So if somebody informs them, hey, you are breaking a standard, they see this as a compliment."

The company's Swedish subsidiary refused requests for comment in an email citing "record deliveries".

In fact, the automaker has given only one media interview during the entire period since the industrial action started.

Earlier this year, the local division's "national manager, Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it suited the organization more to avoid a collective agreement, and instead "to collaborate directly with the team and provide workers the best possible conditions".

The executive denied that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined at Tesla headquarters overseas. "Our division possesses a mandate to make our own such decisions," he stated.

The union is not completely isolated in its fight. The strike has been supported by a number of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Denmark, Norway & Finland, are refusing to process the company's vehicles; waste is no longer removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; and newly built charging stations remain linked to the grid across the nation.

Exists an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where 20 chargers remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, states Tesla owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There's another charging station six miles from this location," he comments. "And we can continue to purchase vehicles, we can service our vehicles, we can charge our electric cars."

With stakes high on both sides, it is difficult to envision a resolution to the stand-off. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

"The concern is how this could expand," says the researcher, "and ultimately {erode