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Across Sweden, approximately 70 car mechanics persist to challenge among the globe's wealthiest corporations – Tesla. The industrial action at the US automaker's ten Swedish service centers has now entered two years of duration, with little sign for a settlement.

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

"It's a tough time," states the 39-year-old. And as the nation's chilly winter weather arrives, it is expected to grow even tougher.

Janis devotes every start of the week with a colleague, standing outside an electric vehicle garage on an industrial park located in southern Sweden. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies shelter in the form of a mobile builders' van, as well as hot beverages and light meals.

However it's operations continue normally nearby, at which the service facility seems to be in full swing.

This industrial action involves a matter that reaches to the heart of Swedish industrial culture – the right for worker organizations to bargain for pay and working terms representing their workforce. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly a century.

Currently some 70% of Scandinavia's employees are members to labor organizations, while 90% fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes across the nation are rare.

It's an arrangement supported across the board. "We prefer the right to bargain directly with the unions and sign labor contracts," states a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses employer group.

However the electric car company has disrupted established practices. Vocal CEO Elon Musk has said he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply don't like any arrangement which creates a sort of hierarchical situation," he told an audience in New York in 2023. "I think the unions attempt to generate negativity in a company."

Tesla came to the Scandinavian market back in the mid-2010s, and the metalworkers' union has long sought to secure a collective agreement with the automaker.

"But they did not reply," says Marie Nilsson, the union's leader. "And we got the belief that they tried to avoid or evade discussing this with our representatives."

She states the organization ultimately saw no alternative except to announce a strike, beginning on 27 October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to issue the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "Employers typically signs the contract."

However this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, who is of Latvian origin, began employment for Tesla several years ago. He asserts that wages & conditions were often subject to the discretion of supervisors.

He recalls a performance review where he says he was refused a salary increase on grounds he was "not reaching company targets". At the same time, a coworker was reported to be turned down for increased compensation due to he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, not everyone went out in the industrial action. Tesla employed some one hundred thirty mechanics employed at the time the industrial action was initiated. The union states that today around 70 of its members are participating in the action.

Tesla has since replaced these with new workers, a situation there is no precedent since the Great Depression.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly and systematically," states German Bender, an analyst at Arena Idé, a policy organization financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not against the law, which is crucial to recognize. However it violates all traditional norms. But Tesla shows no concern about norms.

"They want to be norm breakers. So if somebody informs them, hey, you are breaking a norm, they perceive this as a compliment."

The company's local division refused attempts for comment in an email mentioning "record vehicle shipments".

In fact, the company has given only one press discussion in the two years after the industrial action began.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a business paper that it suited the organization better to avoid a collective agreement, and rather "to collaborate directly with the team and give them optimal conditions".

The executive denied that the choice not to enter a labor contract was determined at Tesla headquarters overseas. "We have authorization to take our own such choices," he stated.

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

Port workers in nearby Denmark, Norway and Finland, decline to process Teslas; waste is no longer collected from the automaker's Swedish facilities; while recently constructed power points remain linked to the grid across the nation.

There is an example close to the capital's airport, where 20 chargers remain unused. But Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of an owner's club the Swedish Tesla association, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's an alternative power point 10km from here," he says. "And we can continue to buy our cars, we can service our vehicles, we can charge our cars."

With consequences significant for all parties, it's hard to see a resolution to the stand-off. IF Metall risks setting a precedent should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

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