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Across Sweden, approximately seventy car mechanics continue to challenge among the globe's richest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The industrial action at the American automaker's 10 Scandinavian service centers has currently entered its second anniversary, with little indication of a resolution.

One striking worker has been on the electric car company's protest line starting from October 2023.

"It's a tough period," remarks the 39-year-old. With Sweden's chilly seasonal conditions sets in, it is expected to become even tougher.

Janis spends every start of the week alongside a fellow worker, positioned near a Tesla garage within an industrial park in Malmö. The labor organization, IF Metall, provides accommodation via a mobile builders' van, plus coffee and light meals.

But it's business as usual nearby, where the service facility appears to be at full capacity.

The strike involves a matter that reaches to the heart of Swedish industrial culture – the right of trade unions to negotiate pay and conditions representing their workforce. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned labor dynamics across the nation for nearly one hundred years.

Today approximately seventy percent of Swedish employees belong to labor organizations, while ninety percent are covered under negotiated labor contracts. 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 collective agreements," states Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

But Tesla has upset established practices. Outspoken chief executive the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I just disapprove of anything which creates a sort of lords and peasants situation," he told listeners at an event last year. "In my view labor groups attempt to create negativity within businesses."

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

"Yet they did not respond," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "And we got the belief that they attempted to hide away or evade discussing the matter with us."

She states the organization eventually saw no other option than to call industrial action, which started in late October, 2023. "Typically it's enough to make the threat," says the union leader. "Employers usually signs the agreement."

However not on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He claims that wages & conditions were often subject to the discretion of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he says he was denied an annual pay rise on grounds that he "failing to meet Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a colleague was said to be turned down for a pay rise due to he had the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, some workers went out on strike. The company had approximately one hundred thirty mechanics working when the strike was initiated. IF Metall says that today around seventy of their represented workers are participating in the action.

The automaker has long since substituted the striking workers with new workers, a situation there is not occurred since the era of the 1930s.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] openly and methodically," says German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not illegal, this being important to understand. However it goes against all traditional norms. Yet the company shows no concern for conventions.

"They aim to become convention challengers. So if somebody tells them, listen, you are violating a standard, they see this as a compliment."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary declined attempts for comment in an email citing "all-time high vehicle shipments".

In fact, the company has granted just a single media interview during the entire period since the strike began.

In March 2024, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, 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 them the best possible conditions".

The executive denied that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined at Tesla headquarters in the US. "Our division possesses authorization to make independent such decisions," he stated.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in this conflict. The strike has been supported by a number of other unions.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Denmark, Nordic countries & neighboring states, are refusing to handle Teslas; rubbish is no longer collected from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; while newly built charging stations remain linked to power networks in the country.

There is an example near the capital's airport, at which 20 chargers remain unused. However a Tesla enthusiast, the president of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There exists an alternative power point 10km from this location," he comments. "And we can still buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can power our cars."

With consequences high on both sides, it is difficult to see an end to the deadlock. The union risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

"The worry is how this could expand," states Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode