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Across Sweden, around 70 car mechanics continue to confront among the world's richest companies – Tesla. This labor strike at the American carmaker's 10 Swedish service centers has now reached two years of duration, with minimal indication for a settlement.

Janis Kuzma has been at the electric car company's picket line starting from October 2023.

"It has been a tough time," states the worker in his late thirties. And as Sweden's chilly winter weather arrives, it is expected to grow more challenging.

The mechanic devotes each Monday alongside a fellow worker, standing outside a Tesla garage within a business district located in southern Sweden. His union, IF Metall, provides shelter via a mobile construction vehicle, plus hot beverages & sandwiches.

But it remains operations continue normally across the road, where the service facility appears to operate in full swing.

The strike involves a matter that goes to the heart of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to negotiate pay and conditions on behalf of their workforce. This concept of collective agreement has supported labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly a century.

Today some seventy percent of Swedish workers belong of a trade union, while ninety percent fall under by a collective agreement. Labor stoppages across the nation occur infrequently.

This is a system welcomed across the board. "We prefer the ability to bargain freely with the unions and sign collective agreements," says a business representative from the Association of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

But the electric car company has disrupted the apple cart. Outspoken chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of unions. "I just don't like anything that establishes a kind of hierarchical sort of thing," he informed an audience in New York in 2023. "I think the unions attempt to create negativity within businesses."

The automaker came to the Scandinavian market back in 2014, while the metalworkers' union has for years sought to establish a collective agreement with the company.

"But they wouldn't respond," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's leader. "And we got the belief that they attempted to hide away or not discuss the matter with our representatives."

She says the organization ultimately saw no other option than to announce a strike, which started on 27 October, last year. "Typically the threat suffices to issue a warning," comments the union leader. "Employers usually agrees to the agreement."

But not in this case.

The striking mechanic, who is of Latvian origin, began employment with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that pay and work terms were often subject to the whim of managers.

He recalls an evaluation meeting where he says he was denied an annual pay rise on grounds he was "not reaching Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was said to be rejected for increased compensation due to having the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, not everyone participated on strike. The company employed some 130 technicians working when the industrial action was called. IF Metall says that today approximately 70 of its members are participating in the action.

Tesla has long since replaced these with new workers, for which there is no precedent since the Great Depression.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and methodically," states German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a think tank financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not illegal, this being crucial to recognize. However it goes against all traditional practices. Yet the company shows no concern about norms.

"They want to be convention challengers. Thus when somebody informs them, hey, you are violating a standard, they see that as praise."

The company's Swedish subsidiary declined attempts for interview via correspondence mentioning "all-time high vehicle shipments".

In fact, the company has given only one media interview in the two years since the industrial action started.

In March 2024, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it benefited the organization more not to have a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and give workers the best possible terms".

Mr Stark denied that the choice not to enter a labor contract was one made by US leadership overseas. "Our division possesses authorization to take independent such choices," he said.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in its fight. The strike has received backing from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries and neighboring states, decline to process Teslas; rubbish is not removed from the automaker's Swedish facilities; while recently constructed power points are not being connected to power networks in the country.

Exists one such facility close to the capital's airport, at which 20 charging units stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, states Tesla owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's an alternative power point 10km from here," he says. "And we can continue to purchase vehicles, we can maintain our vehicles, we can charge our cars."

With stakes high for all parties, it's hard to see an end to the stand-off. The union faces the danger of establishing a pattern should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

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