Tesla factory workers in Buffalo,
New York have announced yesterday that they're campaigning to form a union.
Unfortunately it's not going to be an easy task considering their chief executive,
Elon musk,is very much against labor organizing.
But let's talk about what the plan is, what they would like to see changed at
this Tesla factory, and then we'll go from there.
Now the effort is being led by the company's autopilot analysts
who helped to develop he autopilot technology in the vehicles.
Now the autopilot analysts also hope to unionize the other
manufacturing workers at the Buffalo or Tesla factory.
Now, like other workers who decide to organize, they have issues with pay, but
they also have issues with working conditions.
So, according to Bloomberg,
these analysts are hired at a starting pay of around $19 an hour,
which seems pretty low considering how successful Tesla is, how expensive
the vehicles are, and how much work these people put in every single day.
I mean, they're working incredibly long hours, and, by the way,
they receive very little sick time.
One of the workers, Zara, says, as much as I love my job, it can feel very
disheartening living paycheck to paycheck when I work for one of the most successful
companies in the world, and that is why I'm exercising my right to unionize.
And Francesca, I will say now is the time to do it, because the NLRB,
the National Labor Relations Board, under the Biden administration,
has been relatively good, and I'm saying relative because other
administrations have had pretty abysmal national labor relations boards.
But in this case,
they have stepped in to protect some of the workers from Starbucks, for instance,
after they were retaliated against for wanting to organize their workplace.
So, more power do these workers at Tesla, I hope they go forward with it.
>> Yeah, I think it's incredible.
And it also is not a big morale boost when the head of Tesla,
Elon Musk, is off like running his mouth on Twitter,
whining constantly about how,you know his tweets, no one's engaging with them.
Now you must change algorithm, like he is a terrible figurehead for this company.
And I think shareholders think that, and now you see workers think that.
So it's all of it at once, right?
You see your own CEO clearly just wasting money left and right,
buying up companies over like for way more than they're worth, gallivanting over
to the Super Bowl to chill with Rupert Murdoch, hell yeah, you're gonna unionize.
And $19 an hour is nothing.
>> Insane.
>> Are you kidding me?
And finally, look, that is a very particular subsect of Tesla workers.
These are the people who are keenly aware of how your autopilot does,
and does not work.
And we have seen the crashes on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco,
we've seen people like these pileups caused by a Tesla that was on autopilot,
remember the dude who used to work at Tesla, his job was to take him for
test drives, he posted videos to YouTube,
he was fired for that even though Elon Musk knew he was doing that.
So, all of these things.
This is a group of workers you wanna keep happy.
>> Yes. >> They got the dirt on how bad your
autopilot function actually is, and how far we are ,truly, from self driving cars.
Don't ask me about that, you know, we're far.
>> Yeah, you're totally right about that.
I just wanted to really reinforce what you just said because the Elon Musk fanboys
are totally like oblivious to what's really going on with these vehicles,
and how they're not in any way ready to be driverless, but the other thing I
wanted to just quickly mention is not only do you want to keep them happy,
you want to avoid overworking them.
Especially considering this is the feature that's really a selling point for
Elon Musk's cars, right?
So, give them some time off.
The fact that they can't take time off is insane.
>> No, absolutely.
And also I think it goes to this idea that we have in this country of like
prestigious brands, Tesla sort of seen as it's a status symbol, right?
You own a Tesla, status symbol, right?
And yet it also is like an electric car, right?
So it's a status symbol of sort of elite liberal ideology.
And those are also the libs that do not want to be supporting a brand that is
crappy to its workers.
I mean, the give or take.
I'm not saying every Tesla owner, but ultimately, I think a lot of it does not
behoove the brand overall, which is really appealing to that base,
when they know that you treat your workers like crap.
>> Absolutely.
And one other thing I'll mention in regard to how the workers are treated,
there's all sorts of insane surveillance and monitoring happening.
So, workers of the plant told Bloomberg that Tesla,
like other corporations unfortunately, monitors keystrokes to track how
long employees spend per task and how much of the day they spend actively working.
This leads some to avoid taking bathroom breaks, six employees said.
People are tired of being treated like robots,
said Al Celli, a member of the unions organizing committee.
I don't understand that obsession that corporate executives have.
Okay?
There's a workload, and the employee has to get the work done by a certain
deadline, why are you surveilling them all day?
Like I just don't get that.
It's so stupid, I mean, it's communicating to your employees
that you don't trust them, that you think they're lazy losers and
you have to constantly watch them like a weirdo.
That's not going to help your situation.
It's crazy.
>> No, no, not at all.
I mean, and it's become so much more commonplace now with the pandemic.
Like people who ,again, are making as little as 19 an hour,
like we're going to monitor their keystrokes, stop it, stop.
And it's a fight, I love it.
I love that it's a fight,
I love that we get to troll Elon Musk when this union goes forward and
we get to be on the side of the workers once again and rub it in his face.
So, yeah.
>> It is pretty delicious.
>> I'm looking forward to the fight.
>> Yeah.
And he is notoriously anti union, so I can't wait to hear his comment on this,
but I hope it doesn't deter the workers.
They should continue organizing, they should continue fighting.
Because they deserve protection, and they deserve better working conditions and pay.
Its that easy, that simple.