Tesla laid off more than 30 employees from its Autopilot department at a Buffalo plant in New York, just a day after workers announced a campaign to form a unionaccording to a complaint filed with a government agency.
In a filing with the US National Labor Relations Board, the Workers United Upstate New York union accused the automaker of fighting back, firing some of the employees “in retaliation for union activity.”
Through a statement, he added that workers also received an email with an updated policy, which prohibits them from recording meetings in the workplace without the permission of all participants.
Union organizers are “seeking injunctive relief to avoid the irreparable destruction of the rights of employees as a result of Tesla’s unlawful conduct,” the complaint states.
Earlier this week, Tesla workers in New York said they were organizing for job security, as well as better wages and working conditions with Workers United, the same group that helped form the country’s first unionized Starbucks.
Employees had asked the electric car maker to respect their right to organize a union and asked the company to sign on to the Fair Choice Principles, which would prevent Tesla from threatening or retaliating against workers.
Non-union workplaces give companies a potential advantage of costs on established automakers such as General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis, whose employees are represented by the United Auto Workers in the United States.
Tesla pays workers in Buffalo less than national averages and receive little sick time, workers involved in the campaign said.
Unionized workers generally receive better wages and benefits than unrepresented workers.
Attempts to organize Tesla workers have so far failed because Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, has been openly hostile to unions.
In 2021, the National Labor Relations Board found that he illegally fired a worker involved in organizing the company’s auto plant in Fremont, California, and that Musk had illegally threatened workers with the loss of their stock options. If they unionized.
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Source: La Opinion
