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In Sweden, around 70 car technicians continue to confront one of the world's wealthiest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. This labor strike targeting the American automaker's ten Swedish service centers has currently entered two years of duration, with little sign for a resolution.

Janis Kuzma has been on the Tesla protest line since October 2023.

"It's a tough period," states the worker in his late thirties. And as Sweden's cold winter weather arrives, it is expected to become even tougher.

The mechanic spends every start of the week with a colleague, standing outside an electric vehicle garage on a business district in Malmö. The labor organization, IF Metall, supplies shelter in the form of a mobile construction vehicle, as well as coffee & light meals.

But it's business as usual nearby, at which the workshop appears to be in full swing.

The strike concerns a matter that goes to the heart of Swedish industrial culture – the right of trade unions to bargain for pay and conditions representing their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics across the nation for nearly one hundred years.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Swedish workers belong of a trade union, and 90% fall under by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

It's a system supported by all parties. "We prefer the ability to bargain directly with the unions and establish labor contracts," says a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

But Tesla has disrupted established practices. Vocal CEO Elon Musk has said he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just don't like anything that establishes a kind of hierarchical situation," he informed listeners at an event in 2023. "In my view labor groups try to create conflict in a company."

Tesla entered Sweden back in the mid-2010s, while the metalworkers' union has for years wanted to establish a collective agreement with the automaker.

"But they wouldn't respond," says the union president, the organization's leader. "We formed the impression that they tried to hide away or not discuss this with our representatives."

She says the organization ultimately saw no alternative than to announce a strike, beginning on 27 October, last year. "Typically it's enough to make a warning," says Ms Nilsson. "The company typically agrees to the agreement."

However not in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is of Latvian origin, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He claims that wages & work terms frequently dependent on the whim of supervisors.

He remembers a performance review where he says he was denied a salary increase because that he "failing to meet company targets". At the same time, a colleague was reported to have been turned down for a pay rise because he had the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, some workers went out on strike. Tesla had approximately 130 mechanics working at the time the strike was initiated. The union says currently approximately 70 of their represented workers are participating in the action.

The automaker has since substituted these with replacement staff, a situation there is no precedent since the 1930s.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] publicly and systematically," states German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a think tank supported by Swedish trade unions.

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

"They aim to become convention challengers. So if anyone informs them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive that as a compliment."

The company's local division refused attempts for interview in an email citing "all-time high vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the company has given just a single media interview during the entire period after the industrial action began.

Earlier this year, the local division's "country lead", the executive, told a financial publication that it benefited the company more not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and provide workers the best possible conditions".

The executive rejected that the decision not to enter a labor contract was one made by US leadership in the US. "We have a mandate to make independent such choices," he said.

IF Metall is not completely alone in its fight. The strike has received backing by a number of other unions.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Norway & neighboring states, are refusing to handle the company's vehicles; waste is no longer collected from the automaker's Swedish facilities; while newly built charging stations are not being linked to the grid in the country.

There is an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where twenty charging units stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the president of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, states vehicle owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's an alternative power point six miles from here," he comments. "And we can still buy our cars, we can maintain our cars, we can power our electric cars."

With consequences significant for all parties, it is difficult to see a resolution to the stand-off. IF Metall risks setting a precedent should it surrender the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

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