Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) workers at a US factory state plan to launch what would be the company's first trade union, with the intention of improving working conditions.
Unions are attempting to organise staff at a company plant in Buffalo, New York, where a big focus is on full self-driving technology.
Al Celli, a member of the union's organising committee, said: "People are tired of being treated like robots. We have such a rush to get things done that I don't know if it's actually being well thought out."
Like many US tech groups, Tesla and chief executive Elon Musk resisted unionisation at its US plants but had no choice but to accept them at its gigafactory near Berlin, Germany, while industrial relations are strained inside and outside the country.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 21, 2018
Last year the National Labor Relations Board determined that Musk had violated Federal labour law with an earlier tweet and also sacked an employee, Richard Ortiz, for trying to persuade Tesla workers to join a union.
The NLRB also told the company it cannot restrict its workers' ability to display union insignia at work, such as wearing union t-shirts and buttons.
The company launched a legal challenge to a finding by the National Labor Relations Board that Tesla violated labour laws for firing a union activist.
In 2018 a Musk tweet appeared to threaten the loss of stock options for employees if they joined the UAW
Tesla has resisted unionisation at its US factories. (I think there are ones in Germany)