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Across Sweden, around 70 car mechanics persist to confront among the globe's richest companies – Tesla. This industrial action at the American automaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, and there is little indication for a settlement.

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

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

The mechanic devotes each Monday with a colleague, standing near an electric vehicle garage on a business district in Malmö. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies shelter via a mobile builders' van, as well as hot beverages and sandwiches.

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

This industrial action concerns an issue that reaches to the core of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to negotiate pay and working terms on behalf of their members. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned industrial relations in Sweden for almost a century.

Today approximately 70% of Swedish workers are members of a trade union, while ninety percent fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

It's a system welcomed by all parties. "We prefer the right to bargain directly with worker representatives and sign collective agreements," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

However the electric car company has disrupted the apple cart. Outspoken CEO the company leader has said he "disagrees" with the idea of unions. "I simply don't like anything that establishes a sort of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed listeners in New York in 2023. "I think the unions try to generate conflict in a company."

The automaker came to Sweden starting in 2014, while IF Metall has long sought to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"Yet they did not reply," states the union president, the union's president. "We formed the impression that they attempted to hide away or not discuss this with our representatives."

She states the union eventually found no other option except to call a strike, which started in late October, last year. "Typically it's enough to issue the threat," says the union leader. "The company usually signs the contract."

But this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, started working with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that pay and work terms were often subject to the discretion of supervisors.

He recalls a performance review at which he says he was denied a salary increase because he was "not reaching company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was said to be turned down for increased compensation due to he had the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone went out in the industrial action. The company had some one hundred thirty technicians employed when the strike was initiated. IF Metall states that today approximately seventy of its members are on strike.

The automaker has since replaced these with replacement staff, for which that has no precedent since the 1930s.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly and systematically," says German Bender, an analyst at Arena Idé, a policy organization supported by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It is not against the law, which is important to understand. However it goes against all traditional practices. Yet Tesla shows no concern for conventions.

"They aim to be norm breakers. So if anyone informs them, listen, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as praise."

The automaker's local division refused requests for interview via correspondence citing "all-time high deliveries".

In fact, the automaker has given just a single press discussion in the two years since the strike started.

Earlier this year, the local division's "country lead", the executive, told a business paper that it suited the organization better not to have a union contract, and instead "to work closely with the team and provide them the best possible terms".

Mr Stark denied that the decision to avoid a labor contract was one made at Tesla headquarters overseas. "We have a mandate to take independent such choices," he said.

The union is not entirely isolated in its fight. This industrial action has received backing from several of labor organizations.

Port workers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & neighboring states, are refusing to process Teslas; rubbish is not collected from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; and recently constructed charging stations are not being linked to power networks in the country.

Exists one such facility close to the capital's airport, where twenty chargers stand idle. However Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, states Tesla owners are unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's an alternative power point 10km from here," he comments. "And we can still buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can power our electric cars."

With consequences high for all parties, it is difficult to envision an end to the deadlock. IF Metall faces the danger of establishing a pattern should it surrender the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

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