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In Sweden, approximately seventy car technicians persist to confront one of the world's richest companies – Tesla. This industrial action at the American carmaker's ten Swedish repair facilities has currently entered two years of duration, with minimal indication of a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has remained at the electric car company's protest line since October 2023.

"It's a difficult time," remarks the 39-year-old. With the nation's cold winter weather sets in, it is expected to become more challenging.

The mechanic spends each Monday with a colleague, positioned outside an electric vehicle garage within a business district located in southern Sweden. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies shelter in the form of a mobile builders' van, plus hot beverages & light meals.

However it remains business as usual across the road, where the service facility appears to operate at full capacity.

This industrial action involves an issue that goes to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the right of trade unions to bargain for pay & working terms representing their members. This concept of collective agreement has supported industrial relations in Sweden for almost a century.

Currently some 70% of Scandinavia's workers are members to labor organizations, while ninety percent fall under by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages across the nation occur infrequently.

It's an arrangement welcomed by all parties. "We favor the ability to bargain freely with worker representatives and sign labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

However Tesla has upset the apple cart. Outspoken CEO Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of unions. "I simply don't like anything which creates a sort of hierarchical situation," he told listeners at an event last year. "In my view labor groups try to create negativity within businesses."

Tesla entered the Scandinavian market back in 2014, and the metalworkers' union has for years wanted to secure a collective agreement with the company.

"But they did not reply," states the union president, the organization's president. "We formed the impression that they tried to hide away or not discuss this with us."

She says the organization ultimately saw no alternative than to call industrial action, which started in late October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to make the threat," says the union leader. "The company typically agrees to the contract."

But this did not happen in this case.

Janis Kuzma, who is of Latvian origin, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that pay & conditions were often subject to the whim of supervisors.

He recalls a performance review where he says he was denied an annual pay rise because he was "not reaching company targets". At the same time, a colleague was said to be rejected for a pay rise because he had the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone participated in the industrial action. Tesla had approximately one hundred thirty technicians employed when the strike was called. The union says currently around seventy of their represented workers are on strike.

The automaker has long since replaced these with new workers, a situation there is not occurred since the Great Depression.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and systematically," states German Bender, an analyst at Arena Idé, a think tank financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not illegal, this being important to recognize. However it violates all established norms. But the company shows no concern about norms.

"They aim to become norm breakers. So if somebody tells them, hey, you are breaking a norm, they see that as a compliment."

The company's Swedish subsidiary declined attempts for comment in an email mentioning "all-time high deliveries".

Indeed, the company has given just a single media interview in the two years after the industrial action began.

In March 2024, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a business paper that it suited the organization better to avoid a collective agreement, and instead "to work closely with the team and provide workers optimal terms".

The executive denied that the decision to avoid a labor contract was one made at Tesla headquarters in the US. "Our division possesses authorization to make our own such decisions," he said.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in its fight. The strike has received backing by a number of labor organizations.

Port workers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Norway and neighboring states, are refusing to handle the company's vehicles; rubbish is not removed from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; while recently constructed power points are not being connected to power networks in the country.

There is one such facility near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which 20 charging units stand idle. However a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of an owner's club the Swedish Tesla association, states vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There exists an alternative power point 10km from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to continue to purchase vehicles, we can maintain our vehicles, we can charge our cars."

With consequences significant for all parties, it's hard to envision a resolution to the stand-off. The union risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the fundamental concept of negotiated labor contracts.

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