The boss of Tesla, pinned down in the past for having obstructed the creation of a union in his Californian factory, invited the powerful UAW auto union to organize a vote for the possible opening of a branch.
“Tesla will do nothing for the [en] prevent, ”assured Elon Musk on his Twitter feed on Wednesday evening.
He was responding to a message noting that US President Joe Biden almost never mentioned Tesla when talking about electric vehicles, even though the company has long been the only bet on this segment in the United States. Mr. Biden has made clear his preference for traditional builders employing unionized workers.
“Our real challenge [dans la zone où est implantée l’usine] is the very low unemployment rate, so if we don’t treat and pay our [fantastiques] employees, they have other offers and leave, ”said Mr. Musk on the social network. “I would therefore like to invite the UAW to hold a vote on unionization [de l’usine] at his convenience,” he added.
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 (@elonmusk) March 3, 2022
The UAW did not immediately react. But the union organization has already tried in the past to organize a section within the factory in Fremont, California. And faced some resistance from management.
The UAW thus seized the authorities in 2017 to denounce the dismissal of workers militant for the creation of a union branch and had subsequently denounced a tweet by Elon Musk, akin, according to the union, to veiled threats against employees who would be tempted to join a union.
The country’s Labor Law Bureau (NLRB) ruled in 2019 that Tesla had indeed violated certain labor rules and had ordered the return of certain employees as well as the removal of certain internal rules prohibiting, for example, the distribution of union leaflets. without permission. Tesla appealed and the case is still ongoing.
The leader of the group, the richest man in the world, more recently criticized a proposal by the Biden government to give an additional bonus to electric vehicles made in the United States by unionized employees.
The Fremont plant is also the subject of several complaints of racial discrimination and sexual harassment.