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Across Sweden, approximately seventy automotive technicians persist to confront among the globe's wealthiest companies – Tesla. This industrial action targeting the US automaker's 10 Scandinavian service centers has now reached its second anniversary, with little sign of a settlement.

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

"It has been a tough period," states the 39-year-old. With Sweden's cold seasonal conditions arrives, it's likely to become more challenging.

The mechanic spends each Monday with a fellow worker, standing near a Tesla garage on a business district located in southern Sweden. His union, IF Metall, supplies accommodation in the form of a mobile builders' van, as well as hot beverages and sandwiches.

However it remains business as usual across the road, where the service facility appears to be at full capacity.

This industrial action involves an issue that reaches to the heart of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the right for worker organizations to bargain for pay and working terms representing their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned industrial relations across the nation for nearly one hundred years.

Today approximately 70% of Scandinavia's employees are members of a trade union, while ninety percent are covered by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation are rare.

This is a system supported by all parties. "We prefer the right to negotiate directly with the unions and establish labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

But Tesla has upset established practices. Outspoken CEO Elon Musk has said he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just don't like any arrangement which creates a sort of hierarchical situation," he told listeners in New York last year. "In my view labor groups try to create conflict within businesses."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market starting in the mid-2010s, while the metalworkers' union has for years sought to establish a labor contract with the automaker.

"Yet they did not respond," states the union president, the union's leader. "We formed the belief that they attempted to avoid or not discuss the matter with us."

She states the organization eventually saw no alternative except to announce a strike, beginning on 27 October, last year. "Typically the threat suffices to issue a warning," says the union leader. "The company typically agrees to the contract."

But this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, began employment for Tesla several years ago. He asserts that pay and conditions frequently dependent on the discretion of managers.

He remembers an evaluation meeting where he states he was refused a salary increase because that he "not reaching company targets". Meanwhile, a coworker was reported to be turned down for a pay rise due to having an "inappropriate demeanor".

However, some workers participated on strike. Tesla had some 130 mechanics employed when the industrial action was called. IF Metall states currently around 70 of its members are on strike.

The automaker has since substituted the striking workers with new workers, for which there is no precedent since the era of the 1930s.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly and systematically," states a labor researcher, a researcher at Arena Idé, a think tank financed by Swedish trade unions.

"It's not illegal, this being crucial to recognize. However it violates all established norms. Yet the company shows no concern about norms.

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

The company's Swedish subsidiary refused attempts for interview in an email citing "all-time high deliveries".

In fact, the automaker has granted just a single media interview in the two years since the industrial action began.

In March 2024, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a business paper that it suited the organization better not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to work closely with employees and give them the best possible conditions".

Mr Stark denied that the decision not to enter a labor contract was determined at Tesla headquarters overseas. "We have a mandate to make our own such choices," he stated.

IF Metall is not completely alone in this conflict. The strike has received backing by a number of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries and Finland, decline to process the company's vehicles; waste is no longer removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; while recently constructed charging stations are not being linked to the grid in the country.

Exists an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where 20 chargers stand idle. But a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of enthusiasts group the Swedish Tesla association, says vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There exists an alternative power point six miles from here," he says. "And we can still buy our cars, we can service our vehicles, we can charge our electric cars."

With stakes high for all parties, it is difficult to see an end to the deadlock. The union faces the danger of setting a precedent if it concedes the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

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