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In Sweden, around 70 automotive technicians persist to challenge among the world's wealthiest companies – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The industrial action at the American automaker's ten Swedish repair facilities has now entered its second anniversary, and there is little indication for a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has remained on the Tesla picket line since October 2023.

"It has been a tough time," states the 39-year-old. And as the nation's chilly winter weather arrives, it's likely to become even tougher.

The mechanic devotes every start of the week with a colleague, positioned near an electric vehicle service center on a business district in Malmö. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, provides accommodation via a portable builders' van, as well as hot beverages & light meals.

However it's business as usual across the road, where the service facility seems to be at full capacity.

This industrial action concerns a matter that reaches to the heart of Swedish labor traditions – the right of trade unions to negotiate wages & conditions representing their members. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly a century.

Today some 70% of Swedish employees belong to labor organizations, while ninety percent fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes in Sweden are rare.

This is an arrangement welcomed by all parties. "We prefer the right to bargain directly with the unions and establish collective agreements," states Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

However Tesla has disrupted established practices. Outspoken chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of unions. "I just don't like any arrangement that establishes a kind of hierarchical situation," he informed listeners in New York in 2023. "In my view labor groups attempt to create conflict in a company."

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 reply," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "We formed the impression that they attempted to avoid or not discuss this with us."

She states the organization eventually saw no other option than to announce industrial action, beginning on 27 October, 2023. "Typically it's enough to issue a warning," comments the union leader. "Employers usually agrees to the contract."

But not on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, originally of Latvian origin, started working with the automaker several years ago. He claims that wages & conditions were often dependent on the discretion of supervisors.

He remembers a performance review at which he states he was refused an annual pay rise on grounds he was "not reaching company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was said to have been turned down for a pay rise due to having the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, some workers participated on strike. The company had approximately 130 technicians working when the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall states currently approximately 70 of its members are participating in the action.

The automaker has since substituted these with new workers, a situation there is no precedent since the 1930s.

"Tesla has done it [found replacement staff] publicly & methodically," states German Bender, an analyst at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not illegal, this being crucial to recognize. However it goes against all established norms. But Tesla shows no concern about norms.

"They aim to be norm breakers. So if anyone informs them, hey, you are breaking a standard, they see this as praise."

The company's local division declined attempts for comment in an email citing "record vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the automaker has given only one press discussion in the two years after the industrial action began.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a business paper that it suited the company better not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to work closely with employees and give them the best possible terms".

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

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

Dockworkers in nearby Scandinavian nations, Norway and Finland, are refusing to handle the company's vehicles; waste is no longer removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; and recently constructed power points remain connected to the grid across the nation.

Exists one such facility close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where 20 chargers remain unused. But a Tesla enthusiast, the president of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says vehicle owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's another charging station six miles from here," he comments. "And we can still purchase vehicles, we can service our cars, we can charge our cars."

With consequences significant 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 negotiated labor contracts.

"The concern is that this could expand," states the researcher, "and eventually {erode