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In Sweden, around seventy automotive mechanics persist to confront one of the world's richest companies – Tesla. This industrial action targeting the US automaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has now entered two years of duration, and there is little sign of a resolution.

One striking worker has remained on the Tesla protest line since October 2023.

"It's a tough period," remarks the 39-year-old. With the nation's chilly winter weather arrives, it's likely to become more challenging.

Janis spends each Monday with a fellow worker, standing outside an electric vehicle service center within a business district located in southern Sweden. His union, IF Metall, provides accommodation in the form of a portable construction vehicle, plus hot beverages and light meals.

But it remains operations continue normally across the road, at which the service facility seems to be at full capacity.

The strike concerns a matter that reaches to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the right of trade unions to bargain for pay and working terms representing their workforce. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics across the nation for almost a century.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Swedish employees are members of a trade union, while ninety percent are covered by a collective agreement. Strikes in Sweden are rare.

This is an arrangement welcomed by all parties. "We prefer the right to negotiate freely with the unions and establish labor contracts," states a business representative of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses business organization.

But Tesla has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of unions. "I just disapprove of any arrangement which creates a kind of lords and peasants sort of thing," he informed an audience at an event last year. "I think the unions attempt to generate negativity in a company."

Tesla entered Sweden starting in the mid-2010s, and IF Metall has long sought to secure a collective agreement with the company.

"But they did not respond," says the union president, the union's president. "We formed the impression that they attempted to avoid or not discuss the matter with us."

She states the organization ultimately saw no other option except to call industrial action, beginning in late October, 2023. "Typically the threat suffices to issue the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "The company typically signs the agreement."

However not on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, started working with the automaker several years ago. He claims that pay & conditions frequently subject to the discretion of supervisors.

He recalls a performance review at which he says he was denied an annual pay rise on grounds that he "failing to meet Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a coworker was reported to be rejected for a pay rise due to he had the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone went out in the industrial action. The company employed some 130 technicians employed at the time the industrial action was called. IF Metall says currently around 70 of their represented workers are participating in the action.

Tesla has since substituted these with replacement staff, for which that has no precedent since the era of the Great Depression.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly and methodically," states a labor researcher, an analyst at Arena Idé, a think tank financed by Swedish trade unions.

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

"They aim to be convention challengers. So if anyone informs them, listen, you are violating a standard, they see that as a compliment."

The automaker's local division refused attempts for comment via correspondence citing "all-time high vehicle shipments".

In fact, the company has granted only one press discussion during the entire period after the strike started.

In March 2024, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a financial publication that it benefited the organization better to avoid a collective agreement, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and give them the best possible conditions".

Mr Stark rejected that the choice to avoid a collective agreement was one made by US leadership in the US. "Our division possesses a mandate to take independent such choices," he stated.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in its fight. This industrial action has been supported by a number of other unions.

Dockworkers in nearby Denmark, Norway and Finland, are refusing to process the company's vehicles; waste is not collected from the automaker's Swedish facilities; while recently constructed charging stations remain linked to power networks across the nation.

There is one such facility near the capital's airport, where 20 chargers stand idle. However a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says Tesla owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There's an alternative power point 10km from here," he comments. "And we can continue to purchase vehicles, we can maintain our vehicles, we can power our electric cars."

With stakes significant on both sides, it is difficult to see an end to the stand-off. The union faces the danger of setting a precedent if it concedes the principle of collective agreement.

"The worry is how that would spread," states Mr Bender, "and ultimately {erode