They formally announced it this Tuesday. It would be the first union for Tesla, owned by Elon Musk, in the United States. Until now the company has had an openly anti-union policy. The Tesla workers’ fight is part of a wave of unionization sweeping the US that includes workers at Amazon and Starbucks among others.
Tesla workers in New York state announced Tuesday they were launching a campaign to form a union, which if successful would become the first at billionaire Elon Musk’s company in the United States.
The workers pointed out that they need a union organization to be able to fight for better wages but also against working conditions within the company. Among the complaints they make, they highlight that Tesla controls and monitors the number of times that workers press the keys on their computers to verify that they are at their jobs, which has caused many of them to avoid even taking breaks to go to the bathroom.
Until now the company had an openly anti-union policy preventing workers from even asking the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a vote under threat of firing the organizers, thus thwarting two previous unionization attempts in 2017 and 2018.
Musk has in the past been vocal in his opposition to unions and received a warning from the NLRB when he was ordered to delete a 2018 tweet that said employees would lose their stock options if they formed a union.
However, the situation has now changed and the workers have the examples and experiences of Amazon and Starbucks, two giants that also have an openly anti-union policy and have not been able to prevent workers from some of their warehouses and stores from organizing unions. .
“We believe unionization will give us a voice in our workplace that we feel has been ignored to this point,” the workers said in a news release Tuesday.
Tesla workers are organizing with Workers United, which is the union that has helped unionize hundreds of Starbucks stores across the country.
In a letter to management, the workers urged the company to sign the endorsement so they can call fair elections, which would prevent Tesla from retaliating against workers for organizing a union.
On Tuesday, plant employees distributed Valentine-themed flyers with links to a website from where employees could sign union cards, which are needed to be able to call an election.
With information from Reuters and Axios
