Tesla and unions
Tesla, Inc., an American electric car and solar panel manufacturer, has more than 140,000 workers employed across its global operations as of January 2024,[update] almost none of whom are unionized.
[1] Despite allegations of high injury rates, long hours, and below-industry pay, efforts to unionize the workforce have been largely unsuccessful.
In Germany, Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg's non-union status and lower wages compared to industry standards has weakened the structural power of the automotive union IG Metall.
[15] In the fall of 2016, Jose Moran, a Fremont Factory employee, contacted 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.
Three years later, the NLRB ordered Musk to delete that tweet, and reinstate former employee Ortiz with full back pay.
[22] In a 2024 rehearing, the court reversed its decision, holding Musk's tweets to be constitutionally protected speech and that the NLRB must reconsider its order to reinstate Ortiz.
Former and current Tesla employees told CNBC that they believed the company continued to monitor its workers on social media as of 2022.
[8] The new UAW president Shawn Fain attributed previous unionizing failures to internal corruption, "coziness" with management and bad collective agreements.
[5] USW filed a complaint with the NLRB the following June, alleging that Tesla illegally surveilled workers and fired six of them in retaliation,[29] but the case was withdrawn in August.
[35] Following allegations raised by Workers United, the NLRB regional director in Buffalo, New York filed a complaint with the national board in April 2024 alleging that Tesla had unlawfully implemented company policies to prevent workers at its Buffalo plant from unionizing, including by implementing a corporate IT acceptable use policy that restricted workplace organizing.
[36] Tesla is one of the few automakers in Germany that has not signed any individual company collective agreements nor is a member of the Employer Association in the Metal and Electronics Industry [de] as of 2024.
[39] IG Metall membership (2005–2021) has declined by 9%, while the automotive labor market has grown, especially in companies without regional collective agreements.
[42] According to IG Metall, in October 2021, Tesla offered employees at the new Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg (Giga Berlin), wages that were 20 percent below the corresponding collective agreements provided at other automotive plants in Germany.
IG Metall expressed concern that the future works council would be dominated by management, as only those with six months' tenure would be eligible to run.
[47] IG Metall called for an investigation in January 2023, after workers reported being forced to work longer hours, with less resting time between shifts.
IG Metall also stated that workers were being forced to sign non-disclosure agreements and therefore feared retaliation if they openly discussed their working conditions.
IG Metall petitioned the Frankfurt (Oder) Labor Court [de] for a preliminary injunction against the electoral board's proposed timeline.
Given that Tesla factory production was suspended earlier for a month until February 11, due to supply chain disruptions by the Houthi militia in the Red Sea, this would have left each candidate list with only several work days to collect the mandatory 50 signatures from co-workers.
[51] With 39% of the vote the "IG Metall Tesla Workers GFBB" list won the plurality of seats, with 16 out of 39, making them a major opposition.
During the final days of the works council election campaign, Schmitz ended a rally speech with "What we don't need, is a union!"
[55] Mechanics affiliated with IF Metall, a Swedish trade union, initiated a strike against TM Sweden, a Tesla vehicle service subsidiary, on October 27, 2023, over the company's refusal to sign a collective agreement.
[71] In response to the escalations, Tesla posted a job opening for a Swedish government affairs specialist with "significant experience with Nordic legislative and regulatory advocacy", presumably to help with lobbying efforts.
[72] In September 2024, a foreign delegation of Ford Germany works council members and IG Metall deputies joined the picket line at Tesla service center in Malmö, Sweden, as the strike continued.
[73] In January 2025, Tesla appealed to the Karlstad administrative court to mandate the Swedish Transport Agency provide license plates for newly sold vehicles, which is currently blocked by the postal union's sympathy strike.
