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In Sweden, around seventy automotive mechanics persist to challenge one of the globe's wealthiest corporations – Tesla. The industrial action targeting the US carmaker's ten Scandinavian repair facilities has currently reached two years of duration, and there is minimal sign of a settlement.

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

"It has been a tough time," states the 39-year-old. And as Sweden's cold seasonal conditions arrives, it's likely to grow more challenging.

Janis devotes each Monday with a fellow worker, standing near an electric vehicle garage within a business district in Malmö. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides shelter in the form of a mobile builders' van, plus coffee and light meals.

But it remains business as usual across the road, at which the workshop appears to be at full capacity.

This industrial action involves a matter that goes to the core of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to negotiate pay & working terms on behalf of their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for almost a century.

Currently approximately 70% of Swedish workers are members of a trade union, and 90% are covered by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

This is an arrangement supported by all parties. "We favor the ability to bargain freely with the unions and sign collective agreements," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses business organization.

However the electric car company has disrupted established practices. Outspoken chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of anything that establishes a kind of lords and peasants situation," he informed an audience in New York in 2023. "I think the unions try to create negativity within businesses."

Tesla entered Sweden starting in 2014, and IF Metall has for years sought to secure a collective agreement with the company.

"But they did not reply," states the union president, the organization's president. "And we got the impression that they attempted to avoid or not discuss the matter with our representatives."

She states the union eventually found no other option than to call industrial action, which started on 27 October, last year. "Typically it's enough to make the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "The company usually agrees to the contract."

However not in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that wages and work terms frequently subject to the discretion of managers.

He remembers an evaluation meeting where he says he was refused a salary increase on grounds he was "failing to meet Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a colleague was reported to have been turned down for a pay rise because he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, not everyone went out on strike. The company had some 130 mechanics working at the time the industrial action was called. The union states that today approximately 70 of their represented workers are on strike.

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

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and methodically," says a labor researcher, an analyst at a research institute, a think tank financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not against the law, this being important to recognize. However it violates all traditional norms. But Tesla shows no concern for conventions.

"They want to become norm breakers. Thus when anyone tells them, hey, you are breaking a standard, they see this as a compliment."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary refused attempts for interview via correspondence mentioning "all-time high deliveries".

In fact, the company has given only one press discussion during the entire period since the industrial action started.

In March 2024, the local division's "national manager, the executive, informed a financial publication that it benefited the organization more to avoid a collective agreement, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and provide workers optimal conditions".

Mr Stark rejected that the decision not to enter a labor contract was determined by US leadership in the US. "We have authorization to take our own such decisions," he said.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in its fight. This industrial action has been supported from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & Finland, decline to process Teslas; rubbish is not removed from Tesla's Swedish facilities; while newly built power points are not being connected to power networks in the country.

There is an example close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which twenty charging units remain unused. However a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says vehicle owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's another charging station six miles from this location," he says. "And we can still buy our cars, we can maintain our vehicles, we can charge our electric cars."

With stakes high on both sides, it is difficult to envision an end to the deadlock. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern if it concedes the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

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