Tesla and unions

Tesla, Inc. is an American electric car manufacturer which as of January 2023 employs over 127,000 workers across its global operations,[1] none of which are unionized. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has commented negatively on trade unions in relation to Tesla. Despite allegations of high injury rates, long hours, and below-industry pay, efforts to unionize the workforce have been largely unsuccessful.

IG Metall brochures in English and German for Tesla employees.

Tesla is the only major American auto manufacturer not represented by a union in the US as of 2023. Two American trade unions, the United Auto Workers and Workers United have unsuccessfully sought to unionize workers in California and New York respectively. Tesla responded by firing employees involved in both campaigns. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) deemed the California firings in 2017 illegal and retaliatory.

In Germany, Tesla and Tesla Automation's non-union status and lower wages compared to industry standards weakens the power of the metalworkers' union IG Metall. Tesla concluded a pay-related works agreement with Tesla Automation's Works Council, while refusing to sign a collective agreement with IG Metall. In January 2023, IG Metall called for an investigation into Tesla over allegations of long working hours and forced non-disclosure agreements.

United States
See also: Labor unions in the United States

As of February 2023, Tesla is the only major US auto manufacturer not represented by a union in the US.[2][3]

In 2010, Tesla acquired the formerly unionized NUMMI plant in Fremont, California, which became the Tesla Fremont Factory.[4][5] In the fall of 2016, Jose Moran, a Tesla Fremont Factory employee, contacted the United Auto Workers (UAW), going public with a "Fair Future at Tesla" campaign in February 2017, citing high injury rates, long hours and below industry pay as motivations.[6] In 2016, the UAW also indicated its interest in unionizing Tesla,[7] spending over $400,000 by 2018 on organizing, campaigning and filing NLRB complaints.[4] In October 2017, Tesla fired Richard Ortiz who was organizing[8] (alongside Moran, one of the unions organizers),[6] which the NLRB later ruled to be illegal retaliation.[8]

Our real challenge is Bay Area has negative unemployment, so if we don't treat and compensate our (awesome) people well, they have many other offers and will just leave!

I'd like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them.

Elon Musk, (3 March 2022)[9]

In 2018, CEO Elon Musk tweeted "Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? ... ".[10] Musk was ordered to delete that tweet (which implied workers would lose stocks if they formed a union), and offer Ortiz his job back with back pay.[11][12] Additionally Tesla would have to put up a notice in all of its US factories addressing the unlawful tweet.[13] The case was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which in 2023 affirmed the NRLB's order.[14][15]

In March 2022 Musk invited the UAW union to hold a vote at their convenience.[16] UAW president Ray Curry responded that Tesla should recognize it broke the law if it was serious about supporting organizing.[17]

Later, in June 2022, a CNBC report found that Tesla paid public relations firm MikeWorldWide to monitor a Tesla employee Facebook group and to conduct research on Tesla union organizers on social media from 2017 to 2018. MikeWorldWide monitored discussions on social networks alleging unfair labor practices at Tesla and monitored discussions on a sexual harassment lawsuit. Former and current Tesla employees told CNBC that they believed the company continued to monitor its workers on social media as of 2022.[18]

In February 2023, workers at Gigafactory New York in Buffalo involved with labeling data for Tesla Autopilot announced a unionization effort with Workers United.[19] Workers United is affiliated to Service Employees International Union. Workers United successfully led the union drive at a Starbucks store six miles away in Buffalo.[20][21][22] A day after the announcement, a complaint was lodged with the NLRB against Tesla for allegedly firing over 18 employees who participated in the Workers United organization.[23][24]

Germany

Tesla is one of the few auto manufacturers in Germany that have not signed any company collective agreements, nor joined the Employer Association Gesamtmetall as of 2021. Electric vehicle production requires 30 percent fewer workers than traditional combustion-engine vehicles. As a result, a non-unionized Tesla weakens IG Metall's bargaining power in the overall automotive sector in Germany due to fewer union members and a higher labor supply.[25]

Tesla Automation

In January 2017, Tesla acquired Grohmann Engineering (now Tesla Automation). IG Metall and the Works Council Chair Uwe Herzig of Grohmann Engineering stated that wages under Tesla were 25‒30 percent below the Metal Industry ("Gesamtmetall") collective agreements. Employees expressed concern after former CEO Klaus Grohmann was ousted and business contracts with other firms were cancelled.[26]

In early 2023, IG Metall threatened to go on strike if Tesla did not start negotiating with them and the Grohmann Engineering Works Council. In October 2017, management and the Works Council concluded a works agreement that set employee salaries on par with the Metal Industry trade union collective agreements without explicitly signing them. IG Metall still pushes for formal ratification, however, it indicated there have been "good negotiation results", crediting threats of strikes and internal pressure to bolster such agreements.[27]

Giga Berlin
IG Metall office at train station adjacent to the Tesla Factory.

According to IG Metall, Tesla was offering employees at the new Giga Berlin facility wages 20 percent below the collective agreement standards provided at other automotive facilities in Germany.[28][29] On November 22, 2021, seven non-union employees of Giga Berlin initiated the process of establishing a Works Council. IG Metall expressed a concern about the future Works Council being dominated by management, as only earlier employees would be eligible to run as candidates (due to the 6-months tenure requirement) and the majority of the first 1,800 hires were middle–management personnel. In total, Tesla planned to hire 12,000 employees. If the number of employees were to double, the next Works Council election would be two years later instead of the usual four.[30][31] On March 2, 2022, a Works Council was established. Nearly half of the votes went to the manager friendly "Gigavoice" list.[32]

In January 2023, IG Metall called for an investigation after stating that workers had called the organization to report that they were being made to work longer hours, with less time between shifts. IG Metall also stated that workers were being forced to sign non-disclosure agreements alongside their regular work contracts and were therefore afraid of retribution if they openly discussed their work conditions.[33][34][35]

See also

References
  1. "Annual report Form 10-K 2022 Tesla Inc". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. January 31, 2023.
  2. "Tesla workers launch campaign to form union in New York". Reuters. 2023-02-14. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
  3. Bomey, Nathan (May 19, 2016). "UAW wants union for Tesla factory". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
  4. Dayton, Kevin (2018-05-01). "Opinion: Would Tesla close unionized plant like GM and NUMMI did?". The Mercury News. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  5. DeBord, Matthew. "Tesla bought an old GM-Toyota factory and made it cool — but in its former life it built a lot more cars". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  6. Campbell, Alexia Fernández (2019-09-30). "Elon Musk broke US labor laws on Twitter". Vox. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  7. Bomey, Nathan (May 19, 2016). "UAW wants union for Tesla factory". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  8. Scheiber, Noam (2021-03-25). "Tesla employee's firing and Elon Musk tweet on union were illegal, labor board rules". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  9. Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (2022-03-03). "Our real challenge is Bay Area has negative unemployment, so if we don't treat and compensate our (awesome) people well, they have many other offers and will just leave! I'd like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  10. Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (2018-05-20). "Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  11. Kolodny, Lora (2021-03-25). "Tesla ordered to have Elon Musk delete anti-union tweet". CNBC. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  12. McFerran, Lauren; Emanuel, William J.; Ring, John F. (2021-03-25). Tesla, Inc. and Michael Sanchez, Jonathan Galescu, Richard Ortiz and International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, AFL–CIO (decision and order). Decisions of the NLRB. National Labor Relations Board. p. 9,10. Retrieved 2022-01-06. General Counsel argues that to remedy fully CEO Musk's unlawful May 20, 2018 tweet, which coercively threatened that employees would lose their stock options if they selected the Union as their representative, the Board should order the Respondent to have Musk delete that tweet and to post a notice addressing that violation at its facilities nationwide. … (f) Direct its agent and supervisor, CEO Elon Musk, to delete his May 20, 2018 statement
  13. Peters, Jay (2021-03-25). "Tesla has to tell Elon Musk to delete a 2018 tweet, labor board rules". The Verge. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  14. Reply Brief to Court of Appeals (appeal). NLRB. 2021-10-26. Retrieved 2022-01-06. The Court should set aside the Board's ruling that Musk's tweet was unlawful and must be deleted.
  15. Scheiber, Noam (2023-03-31). "Tesla and Musk Lose Ruling on Factory Union Issues". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  16. Boston, William; Elliott, Rebecca (2022-03-03). "Elon Musk Invites UAW to Hold Union Vote at Tesla". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2022-03-03. 'Tesla will do nothing to stop them,' the chief executive says
  17. Wayland, Michael; Kolodny, Lora (2022-03-29). "Tesla should accept that it violated labor laws if Elon Musk is serious about inviting the UAW to organize workers, union chief Ray Curry says". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  18. Kolodny, Lora (2022-06-03). "Tesla monitored its employees on Facebook with help of PR firm during 2017 union push". CNBC. Retrieved 2022-06-04.
  19. Shakir, Umar (2023-02-14). "Tesla workers in New York are trying to form the company's first union". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  20. Eidelson, Josh (2023-02-14). "Tesla Workers Launch Union Campaign in New York". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  21. Ewing, Jack (2023-02-14). "Tesla Workers in Buffalo Begin Union Drive". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  22. Stancil, Kenny (14 February 2023). "Tesla Workers Are Organizing a Union in Buffalo—With Help From Starbucks Veterans". Common Dreams. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  23. Eidelson, Josh (2023-02-16). "Tesla Just Terminated Dozens in Response to New Union Campaign, Complaint Alleges". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  24. Ewing, Jack; Scheiber, Noam (2023-02-16). "Tesla Fired Buffalo Workers Seeking to Organize, Union Says". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  25. Levin, Tim (April 3, 2021). "Tesla is on a collision course with Germany's biggest union and neither side is likely to back down". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  26. Vetter, Philipp (2017-04-16). "Tesla: Ärger mit dem Maschinenbauer Grohmann" [Tesla: Trouble with the machine manufacturer Grohmann]. Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  27. Vetter, Philipp (2017-10-18). "Deutschland: Tesla einigt sich auf deutliche Gehaltssteigerung" [Germany: Tesla agrees on significant salary increase]. Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  28. Waldersee, Victoria (2021-10-07). "Tesla's gigafactory electrifies California-Germany culture clash". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  29. Eddy, Nathan (2022-01-03). "German union steps up efforts to recruit Tesla workers with office near Berlin plant". Automotive News Europe. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  30. Barnstorf, Phillip (November 25, 2021). "IG Metall fürchtet Strategie in früh gewähltem Tesla-Betriebsrat". RBB 24 (in German). Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  31. Waldersee, Victoria (2021-11-24). "German union fears new Tesla works council will be top heavy". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  32. "Erster Betriebsrat bei Tesla steht fest" [The first Works Council at Tesla has been set]. RBB 24 (in German). Retrieved 2022-06-25.
  33. "Tesla under fire in Germany over union concerns on working hours, contracts". Reuters. 2023-01-16. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  34. "Tesla under fire in Germany over union concerns on working hours, contracts". Automotive News Europe. 2023-01-16. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  35. Bhaimiya, Sawdah (January 16, 2023). "A major union in Germany says workers at Tesla's Berlin factory face unreasonable working hours and fear speaking out". Yahoo News. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
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