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In Sweden, approximately 70 car technicians persist to confront one of the globe's richest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The industrial action at the American carmaker's 10 Swedish repair facilities has currently reached two years of duration, and there is minimal sign for a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has remained on the Tesla protest line starting from October 2023.

"It's a difficult period," states the worker in his late thirties. And as Sweden's cold winter weather sets in, it's likely to grow even tougher.

The mechanic spends every start of the week alongside a fellow worker, positioned near an electric vehicle garage on a business district located in southern Sweden. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies shelter via a mobile construction vehicle, plus coffee & sandwiches.

But it remains business as usual across the road, at which the workshop appears to be at full capacity.

The strike concerns a matter that goes to the core of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the right of trade unions to bargain for wages and conditions on behalf of their members. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has supported industrial relations across the nation for almost a century.

Currently approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's workers belong of a trade union, while 90% fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages across the nation are rare.

This is a system supported by all parties. "We prefer the right to bargain directly with worker representatives and establish labor contracts," says a business representative from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

But Tesla has upset established practices. Vocal chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of any arrangement that establishes a kind of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed listeners at an event last year. "I think labor groups attempt to create negativity in a company."

The automaker entered Sweden back in 2014, and the metalworkers' union has long wanted to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"But they wouldn't reply," states the union president, the union's president. "And we got the belief that they tried to avoid or evade discussing the matter with us."

She says the organization eventually found no other option except to call a strike, which started in late October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to make the threat," comments Ms Nilsson. "The company typically agrees to the agreement."

But not in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, started working with the automaker in 2021. He asserts that wages and conditions were often subject to the discretion of managers.

He recalls a performance review at which he states he was denied an annual pay rise on grounds that he "failing to meet company targets". At the same time, a colleague was reported to have been rejected for increased compensation due to having an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers went out in the industrial action. The company employed approximately 130 technicians employed at the time the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall states currently around 70 of their represented workers are participating in the action.

The automaker has since substituted these with new workers, a situation there is not occurred since the 1930s.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly & systematically," states German Bender, an analyst at a research institute, a think tank financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not against the law, this being important to recognize. But it goes against all traditional norms. But Tesla doesn't care for conventions.

"They aim to become norm breakers. So if somebody informs them, listen, you are breaking a norm, they perceive that as a compliment."

The automaker's local division declined attempts for comment via correspondence mentioning "record vehicle shipments".

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

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", the executive, told a business paper that it benefited the company better not to have a union contract, and rather "to collaborate directly with employees and provide workers optimal conditions".

The executive denied that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined by US leadership overseas. "We have a mandate to take independent such decisions," he stated.

The union is not entirely alone in its fight. This industrial action has been supported from several of other unions.

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Norway & Finland, decline to handle Teslas; rubbish is no longer collected from Tesla's Swedish facilities; while newly built charging stations remain linked to the grid in the country.

There is an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which 20 chargers stand idle. However Tibor Blomhäll, the president of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's an alternative power point 10km from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to continue to buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can charge our electric cars."

With consequences high for all parties, it's hard to see a resolution to the deadlock. The union faces the danger of establishing a pattern if it concedes the principle of collective agreement.

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