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In Sweden, around 70 automotive mechanics persist to confront one of the world's richest companies – Tesla. The labor strike at the US automaker's 10 Scandinavian service centers has now entered two years of duration, and there is minimal indication for a settlement.

One striking worker has been at the Tesla picket line starting from October 2023.

"It's a difficult time," remarks the 39-year-old. And as the nation's cold seasonal conditions sets in, it's likely to become more challenging.

Janis devotes every start of the week alongside a colleague, standing near a Tesla garage on an industrial park located in southern Sweden. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies accommodation via a portable builders' van, as well as coffee & sandwiches.

But it's operations continue normally across the road, at which the service facility seems to operate at full capacity.

The strike involves an issue that reaches to the heart of Swedish industrial culture – the right for worker organizations to bargain for pay & working terms representing their workforce. This concept of collective agreement has supported industrial relations in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Today approximately seventy percent of Scandinavia's workers are members to labor organizations, and 90% are covered under negotiated labor contracts. Labor stoppages in Sweden occur infrequently.

It's a system supported by all parties. "We favor the ability to bargain freely with worker representatives and establish labor contracts," states a business representative from the Association of Swedish Enterprise employer group.

But the electric car company has upset the apple cart. Vocal chief executive the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of labor organizations. "I just disapprove of anything which creates a kind of hierarchical situation," he informed listeners at an event last year. "I think the unions attempt to generate conflict in a company."

The automaker came to the Scandinavian market back in 2014, and IF Metall has long sought to secure a labor contract with the automaker.

"Yet they wouldn't reply," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "We formed the impression that they tried to avoid or not discuss the matter with our representatives."

She states the union ultimately saw no alternative except to announce a strike, which started on 27 October, 2023. "Usually it's enough to issue a warning," says the union leader. "The company usually agrees to the agreement."

However this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, who is of Latvian origin, started working for Tesla several years ago. He asserts that wages and work terms were often dependent on the discretion of supervisors.

He remembers an evaluation meeting at which he states he was refused a salary increase because that he "not reaching company targets". At the same time, a coworker was said to have been turned down for increased compensation because having the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone went out in the industrial action. Tesla had some one hundred thirty mechanics employed at the time the industrial action was initiated. IF Metall states currently approximately 70 of their represented workers are participating in the action.

The automaker has long since replaced these with replacement staff, for which that has not occurred since the 1930s.

"The company has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly and methodically," states a labor researcher, a researcher at Arena Idé, a policy organization supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not illegal, this being important to understand. However it goes against all established norms. Yet Tesla shows no concern for conventions.

"They want to be convention challengers. Thus when anyone tells them, hey, you are violating a standard, they perceive this as a compliment."

The company's local division refused requests for comment in an email mentioning "record vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the company has granted only one media interview in the two years since the industrial action began.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "national manager, Jens Stark, told a financial publication that it benefited the company better not to have a union contract, and instead "to collaborate directly with the team and provide workers optimal terms".

The executive rejected that the decision not to enter a labor contract was one made at Tesla headquarters overseas. "Our division possesses authorization to make our own such choices," he stated.

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

Port workers in nearby Denmark, Norway & Finland, are refusing to process Teslas; waste is not collected from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; and recently constructed charging stations are not being connected to power networks in the country.

There is an example near the capital's airport, at which twenty chargers stand idle. But Tibor Blomhäll, the leader of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, states vehicle owners are unaffected by the strike.

"There's another charging station six miles from this location," he says. "And we can still buy our cars, we can maintain our vehicles, we can charge our cars."

With stakes high on both sides, it is difficult to see a resolution to the deadlock. The union risks establishing a pattern should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

"The worry is how that would spread," states Mr Bender, "and ultimately {erode