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In Sweden, approximately 70 car technicians persist to confront among the globe's wealthiest companies – Tesla. The labor strike at the US automaker's 10 Scandinavian repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, and there is minimal sign for a resolution.

One striking worker has been on the Tesla picket line since October 2023.

"It has been a difficult time," states the 39-year-old. With Sweden's chilly winter weather arrives, it's likely to become more challenging.

The mechanic spends each Monday alongside a fellow worker, standing outside a Tesla service center within an industrial park in Malmö. The labor organization, the Swedish metalworkers' union, supplies accommodation via a mobile builders' van, as well as hot beverages and light meals.

However it remains operations continue normally across the road, at which the service facility appears to operate at full capacity.

This industrial action involves a matter that reaches to the core of Scandinavia's labor traditions – the right of trade unions to bargain for wages & working terms on behalf of their members. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for almost a century.

Today some 70% of Swedish employees belong to labor organizations, and 90% fall under under negotiated labor contracts. Strikes in Sweden are rare.

This is an arrangement welcomed across the board. "We favor the ability to bargain directly with worker representatives and sign labor contracts," says Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise business organization.

However Tesla has upset established practices. Outspoken chief executive Elon Musk has stated he "disagrees" with the idea of labor organizations. "I just disapprove of anything which creates a kind of lords and peasants sort of thing," he told listeners at an event last year. "I think the unions try to generate conflict in a company."

The automaker came to Sweden starting in the mid-2010s, and the metalworkers' union has long wanted to establish a labor contract with the company.

"But they wouldn't respond," says Marie Nilsson, the organization's president. "And we got the belief that they attempted to avoid or not discuss the matter with our representatives."

She says the organization ultimately saw no alternative except to call industrial action, which started on 27 October, 2023. "Usually the threat suffices to make a warning," comments Ms Nilsson. "The company typically signs the agreement."

But this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, who is of Latvian origin, started working with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that wages & conditions were often subject to the whim of supervisors.

He remembers an evaluation meeting at which he states he was refused a salary increase because he was "failing to meet Tesla's goals". At the same time, a colleague was reported to be rejected for a pay rise due to he had the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone participated on strike. Tesla employed some one hundred thirty technicians working when the strike was initiated. The union states currently approximately 70 of their represented workers are participating in the action.

Tesla has long since substituted the striking workers with new workers, a situation there is not occurred since the era of the 1930s.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] openly & methodically," states a labor researcher, an analyst at a research institute, a think tank financed by Swedish trade unions.

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

"They aim to become norm breakers. Thus when anyone tells them, listen, you are breaking a norm, they see this as praise."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary refused requests for interview via correspondence mentioning "record vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the company has given only one press discussion in the two years after the strike began.

In March 2024, the local division's "country lead", Jens Stark, told a business paper that it suited the company better not to have a union contract, and rather "to work closely with employees and give them optimal conditions".

The executive rejected that the choice to avoid a labor contract was determined at Tesla headquarters overseas. "We have authorization to make our own such decisions," he stated.

IF Metall is not entirely alone in this conflict. The strike has been supported by a number of other unions.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Norway and neighboring states, decline to handle Teslas; rubbish is no longer removed from Tesla's Swedish facilities; and newly built power points remain linked to the grid in the country.

There is an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, at which 20 chargers remain unused. However a Tesla enthusiast, the leader of enthusiasts group Tesla Club Sweden, says Tesla owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There's another charging station 10km from this location," he says. "Plus we are able to still buy our cars, we can service our cars, we can charge our electric cars."

With stakes significant for all parties, it's hard to see a resolution to the deadlock. The union risks setting a precedent should it surrender the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

"The concern is how this could expand," states Mr Bender, "and ultimately {erode