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In Sweden, around seventy car technicians persist to challenge one of the globe's richest corporations – Tesla. This labor strike at the US carmaker's 10 Scandinavian service centers has currently reached two years of duration, and there is little sign for a settlement.

One striking worker has been on the Tesla picket line since the autumn of 2023.

"It has been a difficult time," states the worker in his late thirties. And as Sweden's chilly seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to grow even tougher.

Janis devotes each Monday alongside a fellow worker, standing near a Tesla service center on a business district located in southern Sweden. His union, IF Metall, supplies accommodation via a mobile construction vehicle, plus coffee & sandwiches.

But it's operations continue normally across the road, at which the workshop seems to be in full swing.

This industrial action involves an issue that goes to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to negotiate wages & conditions representing their members. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned industrial relations across the nation for nearly a century.

Currently approximately 70% of Scandinavia's employees belong to labor organizations, while 90% fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes in Sweden occur infrequently.

It's an arrangement welcomed across the board. "We prefer the ability to bargain freely with worker representatives and establish collective agreements," says Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

But the electric car company has disrupted established practices. Outspoken chief executive the company leader has said he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of anything which creates a sort of hierarchical situation," he told listeners in New York in 2023. "I think labor groups try to create conflict in a company."

The automaker came to Sweden starting in the mid-2010s, while the metalworkers' union has long sought to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"Yet they wouldn't reply," says the union president, the organization's leader. "And we got the impression that they tried to hide away or evade discussing the matter with our representatives."

She says the organization ultimately found no other option than to call industrial action, which started on 27 October, last year. "Typically the threat suffices to make the threat," says the union leader. "Employers usually agrees to the agreement."

However not on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, originally of Latvian origin, started working for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that wages and conditions were often subject to the whim of managers.

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he states he was refused a salary increase because that he "not reaching company targets". At the same time, a coworker was said to have been turned down for increased compensation due to having an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers went out on strike. Tesla had approximately one hundred thirty mechanics working when the industrial action was called. IF Metall says currently around seventy of its members are participating in the action.

The automaker has long since replaced these with replacement staff, a situation that has not occurred since the era of the 1930s.

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] publicly and systematically," states a labor researcher, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not illegal, which is important to understand. However it goes against all established norms. But Tesla doesn't care about norms.

"They aim to become norm breakers. So if somebody tells them, listen, you are violating a standard, they see that as praise."

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

In fact, the automaker has given just a single press discussion during the entire period since the strike began.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", the executive, informed a financial publication that it benefited the organization more to avoid a union contract, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and provide workers optimal terms".

The executive rejected that the decision to avoid a labor contract was determined at Tesla headquarters overseas. "Our division possesses authorization to make our own such decisions," he said.

IF Metall is not entirely alone in this conflict. The strike has received backing from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & neighboring states, are refusing to handle Teslas; waste is no longer collected from Tesla's Swedish facilities; and newly built charging stations are not being connected to the grid in the country.

Exists an example close to the capital's airport, where 20 chargers stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's another charging station 10km from here," he says. "Plus we are able to still buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can charge our electric cars."

With consequences high on both sides, it's hard to see an end to the stand-off. IF Metall risks setting a precedent if it concedes the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

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