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In Sweden, around 70 car technicians continue to challenge one of the world's wealthiest corporations – the electric vehicle manufacturer. The industrial action at the US automaker's ten Scandinavian repair facilities has currently entered two years of duration, and there is minimal indication for a resolution.

One striking worker has been at the Tesla protest line starting from the autumn of 2023.

"It has been a difficult time," states the worker in his late thirties. And as Sweden's chilly seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to become more challenging.

Janis spends each Monday with a colleague, positioned outside a Tesla service center on a business district located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, IF Metall, supplies accommodation in the form of a portable builders' van, as well as hot beverages and light meals.

However it remains operations continue normally nearby, where the service facility seems to be at full capacity.

This industrial action concerns an issue that reaches to the core of Swedish industrial culture – the right of trade unions to bargain for wages & conditions representing their workforce. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned industrial relations in Sweden for almost a century.

Today approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's employees belong of a trade union, while 90% are covered 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 directly with the unions and sign collective agreements," states Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

However Tesla has disrupted established practices. Outspoken chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just don't like anything which creates a sort of hierarchical situation," he informed listeners at an event last year. "I think the unions try to create conflict in a company."

Tesla entered Sweden starting in 2014, while IF Metall has for years wanted to establish a labor contract with the company.

"Yet they wouldn't reply," says the union president, the union's leader. "And we got the impression that they tried to hide away or not discuss the matter with us."

She states the union ultimately found no alternative than to announce industrial action, beginning in late October, last year. "Usually the threat suffices to issue a warning," says the union leader. "Employers usually agrees to the contract."

But this did not happen on this occasion.

Janis Kuzma, originally of Latvian origin, began employment for Tesla in 2021. He asserts that pay and conditions frequently dependent on the whim of managers.

He remembers a performance review at which he says he was denied a salary increase on grounds he was "failing to meet Tesla's goals". At the same time, a coworker was reported to be turned down for increased compensation because he had an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers participated in the industrial action. The company had approximately one hundred thirty technicians employed at the time the industrial action was called. IF Metall states currently approximately seventy of its members are participating in the action.

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

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] openly & methodically," says a labor researcher, an analyst at Arena Idé, a policy organization financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not against the law, which is important to recognize. But it goes against all established norms. But the company doesn't care for conventions.

"They aim to be convention challengers. Thus when anyone informs them, listen, you are violating a norm, they see this as praise."

The automaker's local division refused attempts for comment in an email mentioning "all-time high deliveries".

In fact, the automaker has granted only one press discussion during the entire period since the industrial action started.

Earlier this year, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a business paper that it benefited the organization better to avoid a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with employees and give workers the best possible conditions".

The executive rejected that the choice not to enter a labor contract was determined at Tesla headquarters in the US. "We have authorization to take our own such choices," he said.

IF Metall is not entirely alone in this conflict. This industrial action has been supported from several of other unions.

Port workers in nearby Denmark, Nordic countries & Finland, decline to handle Teslas; waste is not removed from the automaker's Swedish facilities; while newly built power points are not being linked to the grid across the nation.

There is an example close to the capital's airport, at which twenty charging units remain unused. However a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of an owner's club the Swedish Tesla association, says vehicle owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There's an alternative power point six miles from this location," he comments. "Plus we are able to continue to buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can power our electric cars."

With consequences high on both sides, it's hard to see a resolution to the deadlock. IF Metall risks setting a precedent if it concedes the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

"The worry is that this could expand," states Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode