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In Sweden, around 70 car mechanics persist to challenge among the globe's richest companies – Tesla. The industrial action at the American automaker's 10 Scandinavian service centers has currently entered two years of duration, and there is minimal sign of a resolution.

One striking worker has been at the electric car company's picket line since October 2023.

"It's a tough period," remarks the 39-year-old. And as Sweden's chilly winter weather sets in, it's likely to become even tougher.

Janis devotes each Monday with a colleague, positioned outside an electric vehicle garage on an industrial park located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, IF Metall, provides shelter in the form of a portable construction vehicle, plus coffee & light meals.

However it's business as usual nearby, where the workshop appears to be in full swing.

This industrial action concerns an issue that reaches to the core of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the authority of trade unions to negotiate pay & conditions on behalf of their members. This concept of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for nearly one hundred years.

Currently approximately 70% of Scandinavia's employees are members to labor organizations, while ninety percent fall under by a collective agreement. Strikes in Sweden are rare.

This is a system supported across the board. "We prefer the right to negotiate directly with the unions and establish collective agreements," says Mattias Dahl from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

But the electric car company has disrupted established practices. Vocal chief executive Elon Musk has said he "opposes" with the concept of labor organizations. "I simply disapprove of anything that establishes a kind of lords and peasants situation," he told listeners in New York in 2023. "I think the unions try to create conflict in a company."

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

"But they did not reply," states Marie Nilsson, the union's president. "We formed the belief that they attempted to hide away or not discuss the matter with our representatives."

She states the union ultimately saw no other option except to call industrial action, beginning on 27 October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to issue a warning," comments the union leader. "The company typically signs the contract."

However not on this occasion.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, started working for Tesla in 2021. He claims that wages and conditions frequently dependent on the whim of supervisors.

He recalls a performance review where he states he was refused a salary increase on grounds that he "failing to meet Tesla's goals". At the same time, a colleague was said to be turned down for a pay rise due to he had the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, not everyone participated in the industrial action. The company employed some one hundred thirty technicians working at the time the strike was initiated. The union states that today around seventy of its members are on strike.

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

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly & methodically," says German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a think tank financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not against the law, which is important to understand. But it goes against all established norms. But Tesla shows no concern about norms.

"They aim to be convention challengers. Thus when somebody informs them, hey, you are violating a norm, they perceive that as praise."

The company's Swedish subsidiary refused requests for interview via correspondence mentioning "all-time high deliveries".

Indeed, the automaker has given just a single press discussion in the two years after the strike began.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", the executive, told a financial publication that it benefited the company better not to have a collective agreement, and instead "to collaborate directly with the team and provide them optimal terms".

The executive denied that the decision to avoid a collective agreement was determined by US leadership in the US. "We have a mandate to make our own such decisions," he said.

IF Metall is not completely alone in its fight. This industrial action has received backing by a number of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in nearby Denmark, Norway and Finland, are refusing to handle Teslas; rubbish is no longer removed from Tesla's Scandinavian locations; while recently constructed power points are not being linked to power networks in the country.

There is one such facility close to the capital's airport, where 20 charging units stand idle. However a Tesla enthusiast, the president of an owner's club the Swedish Tesla association, states Tesla owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There exists another charging station 10km from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to still purchase vehicles, we can maintain our cars, we can power our electric cars."

With stakes significant for all parties, it's hard to envision an end to the deadlock. IF Metall risks establishing a pattern if it concedes the principle of negotiated labor contracts.

"The worry is how this could expand," says Mr Bender, "and ultimately {erode