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Across Sweden, approximately 70 automotive mechanics continue to confront among the world's wealthiest corporations – Tesla. This industrial action at the American automaker's ten Swedish repair facilities has now entered its second anniversary, and there is minimal sign of a resolution.

One striking worker has remained on the Tesla protest line since the autumn of 2023.

"It's a tough period," states the 39-year-old. And as the nation's cold winter weather sets in, it is expected to grow even tougher.

The mechanic devotes every start of the week with a colleague, positioned near a Tesla garage within a business district located in southern Sweden. His union, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies accommodation in the form of a portable construction vehicle, as well as coffee and sandwiches.

However it's business as usual across the road, at which the service facility appears to operate at full capacity.

The strike involves an issue that goes to the heart of Scandinavia's industrial culture – the authority for worker organizations to bargain for pay & conditions on behalf of their members. This principle of negotiated labor contracts has underpinned industrial relations across the nation for nearly a century.

Today some 70% of Scandinavia's workers belong of a trade union, while 90% fall under by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation are rare.

This is a system supported by all parties. "We favor the ability to negotiate directly with the unions and establish collective agreements," states a business representative from the Association of Swedish Businesses employer group.

But the electric car company has disrupted the apple cart. Vocal CEO the company leader has stated he "disagrees" with the concept of unions. "I just don't like any arrangement which creates a kind of hierarchical sort of thing," he told listeners at an event in 2023. "In my view labor groups attempt to create conflict in a company."

The automaker entered the Scandinavian market starting in the mid-2010s, while IF Metall has for years sought to secure a collective agreement with the company.

"But they did not reply," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "And we got the impression that they attempted to avoid or not discuss the matter with our representatives."

She states the union ultimately found no alternative than to call industrial action, beginning on 27 October, 2023. "Typically the threat suffices to issue the threat," says the union leader. "Employers typically agrees to the contract."

But this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally from Latvia, started working with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that wages and work terms were often dependent on the whim of supervisors.

He recalls an evaluation meeting at which he states he was refused an annual pay rise because he was "not reaching company targets". Meanwhile, a colleague was said to be turned down for a pay rise because having the "wrong attitude".

Nevertheless, some workers went out in the industrial action. Tesla had approximately one hundred thirty mechanics working when the strike was called. IF Metall says currently around 70 of its members are participating in the action.

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

"The company has done it [found replacement staff] publicly and systematically," states a labor researcher, a researcher at a research institute, a policy organization supported by Swedish trade unions.

"It is not illegal, which is important to understand. However it violates all traditional practices. But Tesla doesn't care about norms.

"They aim to become norm breakers. So if somebody informs them, listen, you are breaking a norm, they see that as a compliment."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary refused requests for interview in an email citing "record deliveries".

In fact, the company has granted just a single media interview in the two years since the strike started.

Earlier this year, the Swedish subsidiary's "country lead", Jens Stark, informed a business paper that it benefited the organization more not to have a collective agreement, and rather "to work closely with the team and give workers optimal conditions".

The executive rejected that the choice not to enter a collective agreement was one made by US leadership in the US. "Our division possesses a mandate to take independent such decisions," he stated.

IF Metall is not completely isolated in its fight. This industrial action has received backing from several of labor organizations.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & neighboring states, are refusing to process the company's vehicles; rubbish is no longer collected from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; and recently constructed charging stations are not being connected to power networks across the nation.

Exists an example close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where twenty chargers stand idle. However a Tesla enthusiast, the president of an owner's club Tesla Club Sweden, says Tesla owners remain unaffected by the strike.

"There's an alternative power point six miles from here," he says. "Plus we are able to continue to buy our cars, we can maintain our cars, we can charge our cars."

With consequences high for all parties, it's hard to envision a resolution to the deadlock. IF Metall faces the danger of setting a precedent should it surrender the principle of collective agreement.

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