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Across Sweden, approximately 70 car technicians persist to confront among the world's wealthiest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The industrial action targeting the American carmaker's 10 Swedish service centers has now reached two years of duration, and there is minimal sign for a resolution.

One striking worker has remained at the Tesla picket line starting from October 2023.

"It's a difficult period," remarks the worker in his late thirties. And as Sweden's chilly winter weather sets in, it's likely to become more challenging.

The mechanic spends every start of the week alongside a fellow worker, positioned near an electric vehicle service center within a business district located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides accommodation via a portable construction vehicle, as well as coffee and sandwiches.

But it's operations continue normally nearby, at which the workshop appears to be in full swing.

The strike concerns an issue that goes to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the authority of trade unions to negotiate pay and working terms on behalf of their members. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned industrial relations across the nation for almost a century.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Swedish employees belong to labor organizations, and ninety percent fall under by a collective agreement. Strikes in Sweden are rare.

This is an arrangement welcomed across the board. "We favor the right to negotiate directly with the unions and sign collective agreements," states Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses business organization.

However Tesla has upset established practices. Outspoken CEO the company leader has stated he "opposes" with the idea of labor organizations. "I just disapprove of anything which creates a kind of lords and peasants sort of thing," he informed an audience at an event last year. "In my view labor groups attempt to generate conflict in a company."

The automaker came to Sweden starting in the mid-2010s, while IF Metall has long wanted to secure a collective agreement with the automaker.

"But they wouldn't reply," states Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "And we got the belief that they tried to hide away or not discuss the matter with us."

She states the union eventually saw no other option than to announce a strike, which started in late October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to issue the threat," comments the union leader. "The company typically signs the contract."

But this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, who is of Latvian origin, started working for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that pay & conditions were often dependent on the whim of managers.

He remembers a performance review where he says he was refused a salary increase because he was "not reaching company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was said to have been turned down for increased compensation due to he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

Nevertheless, some workers went out in the industrial action. Tesla employed some 130 mechanics working at the time the industrial action was called. IF Metall says currently approximately 70 of their represented workers are participating in the action.

Tesla has since substituted the striking workers with replacement staff, a situation there is no precedent since the era of the Great Depression.

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

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

"They aim to be convention challengers. Thus when somebody informs them, listen, you are violating a norm, they perceive that as praise."

The company's Swedish subsidiary refused requests for comment via correspondence mentioning "record deliveries".

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

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a business paper that it suited the organization more to avoid a collective agreement, and instead "to collaborate directly with the team and give workers the best possible terms".

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

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

Port workers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Norway and neighboring states, are refusing to handle the company's vehicles; rubbish is no longer collected from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; 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 charging units stand idle. However a Tesla enthusiast, the president of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, states Tesla owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists another charging station six miles from this location," he says. "And we can continue to buy our cars, we can service our vehicles, we can power our cars."

With stakes high on both sides, it's hard to envision an end to the deadlock. IF Metall risks setting a precedent should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

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