NEW YORK (AP) — Tesla workers at a New York factory are launching a campaign to organize a union in New York.
In a letter to management on Tuesday, the Tesla Workers United organizing committee said employees are looking for a workplace voice at the Buffalo plant and want to “build an even more collaborative environment that will strengthen the company.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken a hard line against organized labor, despite a invitation to the United Auto Workers union to organize a unionization vote at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California. In 2021, Tesla was ordered by the National Labor Relations Board to have Musk delete a 2018 tweet in which he said he illegally threatened employees with loss of stock options if they elected to be represented by the UAW.
The tweet had read: “‘There’s nothing stopping the Tesla team at our auto plant from voting for the union. Could do it tmrw if they wanted to. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2x better than when the factory was UAW and everyone is already getting health care.
In August 2022, the National Labor Relations Commission reversed a Trump-era ruling finding that Tesla could not prevent factory workers from wearing clothing with union badges while on the job. He ordered Tesla to stop enforcing an “overbroad” one-size-fits-all policy that effectively bars production workers at the Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif., from wearing black shirts with the United Auto union logo. Workers.
Tesla union organizers wrote on Tuesday that they were looking for a union as innovative as the electric car company.
“We believe that by having a union at Tesla, we will further the mission of sustainability and foster a progressive environment for all of us,” the letter states.
He went on to say, in a story first reported by Bloomberg, that the union would advance Tesla’s principles and goals, including helping to serve as the organization’s conscience.
If successful, it would be the first union at the electric vehicle manufacturer.
The Tesla factory, which makes solar panels and other renewable energy technologies, is not far from a Starbucks location where workers voted to unionize Last year.